Pimco Global Bond is backed by three skilled managers who draw on the firm’s extensive resources, and it benefits from a flexible, diversified approach, earning High People and Process ratings.
Lead manager Andrew Balls has two decades of experience running global and European mandates, and the three-person investment team, including veteran comanagers Sachin Gupta and Lorenzo Pagani, is well-equipped to cover rates, currencies, corporates, and structured credit. Pimco's top-down views, driven by the firm’s investment committee on which Balls sits, guide the strategy’s broad positioning. Within the scope of those themes, Balls and his team consider relative valuations to determine sector, country, and yield-curve positioning. The setup resembles that of many of its global bond Morningstar Category peers, but the approach of this strategy also allows for considerable flexibility. The fund has historically held up to half its assets in corporate bonds, and up to a third in emerging-markets debt; it can also invest up to 10% in below-investment-grade bonds. The team has used this latitude well and in moderation along with its work in developed-markets sovereign bonds, which typically anchor the portfolio. Andrew Balls has also tended to stay on the shorter side of the benchmark’s duration, which detracted from returns in the fund’s earlier history but helped during recent interest-rate shocks (such as in the first quarter of 2021 and again in 2022). While the portfolio was light on several credit-spread sectors in late 2024 (as the team didn’t see compelling opportunities in the market’s riskier pockets), over long periods Pimco has demonstrated considerable skill in corporate credit, securitized bonds, and currencies. Over the trailing three, five, and 10 years through September 2024, the fund’s institutional USD shares largely outpaced the category average and the benchmark index while keeping volatility in check. All told, this team is well-equipped to take advantage of the strategy’s flexibility over the long haul. |
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