JPMorgan Tax Aware Real Return Fund earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.
The main contributor to the rating is its parent firm's impressive long-term risk-adjusted performance, as shown by the firm's average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.3 stars. Impressive risk-adjusted performance also influences the rating. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. However, the process is limited by being an actively managed strategy. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that actively managed funds have generally underperformed their passive counterparts, especially over longer time horizons.
Compared with other funds in the Muni National Interm Morningstar Category, this fund has been consistently sensitive to interest-rate changes over the past few years. Opening the analysis to additional factors, the portfolio has displayed biases over time, whether towards or away from certain fixed-income instruments. Compared with the category average, the managers have been underweight BBB rated bonds in recent years. In the latest month, the strategy has also relatively underweighted BBB rated bonds compared with Morningstar Category peers. Additionally, there's been an overweight position in debt with 10- to 15-year maturities over the past few years. Compared with category peers, the strategy had more exposure to debt with 10- to 15-year maturities in the most recent month. Finally, during the past few years, the fund leaned meaningfully towards cash. In this month, the strategy also leaned more towards cash compared with its peers.
This strategy has a 3.5% 12-month yield, higher than its average peer's 3.0%. Plus, its 30-day SEC yield (a standardized, point-in-time estimate of the fund’s future income return) sits at 3.1%. Higher yields tend to indicate higher credit risk. But that isn't always the case. Over the past 12 months, the average yield of the fund has been higher than the average yield of its Morningstar Category peers. The portfolio's average surveyed credit quality is on par with peers, with both the fund and the average being rated A.