Secure Steady Income With These 3 Top Municipal Bond Funds

The debt securities category will always be the first choice for risk-averse investors because this class of instruments provides a regular income at low levels of risk. Income from regular dividends helps to ease the pain caused by plunging stock prices.When considering the safety of capital invested, municipal bond mutual funds are second only to those investing in government securities. In addition, interest income earned from these securities is exempt from federal taxes and, in many cases, from state taxes.Below, we share with you three top-ranked municipal bond funds, viz., Vanguard Ltd-Term Tax Exempted VMLTX, American Funds Tax-Aware Conservative Growth and Income Portfolio TAIAX and American High-Income Municipal Bond AMHIX. Each has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of municipal bond funds.Vanguard Ltd-Term Tax Exempted invests most of its net assets in municipal bonds with top three credit-rating categories by nationally recognized rating agencies, or determined to be of comparable quality by the fund’s advisors. It also invests a small portion of its net assets in securities with lower credit ratings. VMLTX advisors try to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 2 to 6 years on individual securities.Vanguard Ltd-Term Tax Exempted has three-year annualized returns of 2.9%. As of January 2025, VMLTX had 84.6% of its assets invested in Total Misc. Bonds.American Funds Tax-Aware Conservative Growth and Income Portfolio invests in a variety of U.S. funds in different combinations and weightings. The funds that it invests in generate income from their investments and may include growth-and-income, equity-income, balanced and fixed-income funds.American Funds Tax-Aware Conservative Growth and Income Portfolio has three-year annualized returns of 6.8%.Andrew B. Suzman has been one of the fund managers of TAIAX since May 2012.American High-Income Municipal Bond invests in securities that are exempt from regular federal income tax and may subject investors to alternative minimum tax.American High-Income Municipal Bond has three-year annualized returns of 3.3%. AMHIX has an expense ratio of 0.67%.To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all municipal bondfunds, investors can click here to see the complete list of municipal bond funds.Want key mutual fund info delivered straight to your inbox?Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing mutual funds, each week. Get it free >>Zacks' Research Chief Names "Stock Most Likely to Double"Our team of experts has just released the 5 stocks with the greatest probability of gaining +100% or more in the coming months. Of those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian highlights the one stock set to climb highest.This top pick is among the most innovative financial firms. With a fast-growing customer base (already 50+ million) and a diverse set of cutting edge solutions, this stock is poised for big gains. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners UpView All Zacks #1 Ranked Mutual FundsWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (AMHIX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (TAIAX): Fund Analysis Report Get Your Free (VMLTX): Fund Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks