JPMorgan Short Duration Core Plus C JSDCX

Fees are a weakness here. The strategy's lofty fees are a high hurdle to clear, as it is priced within the most expensive quintile among peers.

The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's effective investment approach earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an underweight position in AA rated bonds and has an overweight in debt with 20- to 30-year maturities compared with category peers. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Above Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

JPMorgan Short Duration Core Plus Fund earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.

The most important driver of the rating is the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 57%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. Respectable risk-adjusted performance also bolsters 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. Lastly, 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 Short-Term Bond Morningstar Category, this fund takes on higher credit risk. But in terms of long-term interest-rate sensitivity, it hews closely to its average peer 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 average strategy in the category, the managers have been underweight AA rated bonds in recent years. In the latest month, the strategy has also relatively underweighted AA rated bonds compared with Morningstar Category peers. Additionally, there's been a bias towards debt with 20- to 30-year maturities over the past few years. Compared with category peers, the strategy had more exposure to debt with 20- to 30-year maturities in the most recent month. Finally, during the past few years, the fund leaned towards securitized debt. In this month, the strategy also leaned more towards securitized debt compared with its peers.

This strategy has a modest 2.7% 12-month yield, lower than its average peers' 3.7%. It also has a 3.5% 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity). A lower yield tends to indicate lower credit risk. But that isn't always the case. Over the past 12 months, the average yield of the fund has been lower than the average yield of its Morningstar Category peers. The portfolio has a lower average credit rating of BBB, compared with the category average's A and its non-investment-grade stake is 8% of assets, compared to its peers' 2%. Strategies that take on more credit risk tend to be at their best when markets are as well. This risk contributes to strong performance during bull markets at the cost of losing more on the downside.

Cary J. Fitzgerald’s veteran status, with over 25 years of listed portfolio management experience, brings a wealth of experience to the table. The average Morningstar Rating of the strategies they currently manage is 3.4 stars, indicating that their risk-adjusted returns exceeded the category average. Although the team is small, it is a solid supporting cast. Together, the three listed managers boast more than an average of over 25 years of listed portfolio management experience. With at least one manager investing$ 1 million or more in this offering, investors can have some assurance that the team's interests are aligned with theirs.

Note: The People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. The longest-tenured manager of the fund also manages a different product rated by an analyst. Their analyst-assigned People Pillar rating is combined here with the People scores (algorithmic or analyst-assigned) for the fund’s other managers on a tenure-weighted basis.

As of 2022, this investment stalwart manages more than USD 2.5 trillion in AUM. Composed of various global cohorts and diverse asset classes, the firm has more tightly integrated its capabilities in recent years, notably through the development of proprietary analytical and risk systems. Investment teams are robustly staffed and helmed by seasoned contributors. The firm’s strategies tend to produce reliable portfolios, and several flagship offerings are Morningstar Medalists. Manager incentives align with fundholders'; compensation reflects longer-term performance factors, and portfolio managers invest in the firm’s strategies as part of their compensation plans.

The firm’s funds tend to be well-priced, but they aren’t as competitive as many highly regarded peers of similar scale. Recent product launches include thematic and single-country strategies, both of which carry the potential for volatile performance and flows, along with misuse by investors. The firm remains intrepid when it comes to developing an environmental, social, and governance-focused framework and continues to move into other areas such as direct indexing through its 55iP acquisition and China through its joint venture, but these complicated initiatives take time to assess any real and lasting effect.

It has been subpar over the short term but successful over the long term. Over the past five years, the fund lagged the category index, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Government/ Credit 1-3 Year Index, by 22 basis points, and underperformed the category's average return by 36 basis points. More importantly, on a 10-year basis, this share class outperformed the index by an annualized 34 basis points.

The share class had a higher Sharpe ratio, a measure of risk-adjusted return, than the index over the trailing 10-year period. However, these returns were accompanied by additional risk, with a standard deviation of 3.3% compared to the benchmark's 1.4%.

This share class lands in the costliest quintile of its Morningstar Category. Its pricey expense ratio, paired with the fund’s People, Process, and Parent Pillars, suggests that this share class could struggle to deliver positive alpha versus its category benchmark, leading to its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.