Morningstar Hails PIMCO Fund Manager

Mutual fund tracker Morningstar has named fund manager Bill Gross and his team at Newport Beach-based PIMCO “fixed income manager of the year.”

In announcing the award, Morningstar noted that Gross’ PIMCO Total Return fund has beaten the Lehman Bros. aggregate index--a common measure of bond performance--in 10 of the last 13 years. The fund posted an 11.5% return last year, when it made astute bets on long-term Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, while easing up on corporate issues, which had a tough year, according to Morningstar.

Morningstar’s analysts also said Ben Trosky, manager of the PIMCO High Yield fund, “did a particularly nice job of limiting the damage caused by the worst junk bond market in more than 10 years by leaning toward higher quality credits.” The fund’s total return last year was -0.9%.