PGIM Balanced Fund Class A (PIBAX)

TotalReturn:

'Total return, when measuring performance, is the actual rate of return of an investment or a pool of investments over a given evaluation period. Total return includes interest, capital gains, dividends and distributions realized over a given period of time. Total return accounts for two categories of return: income including interest paid by fixed-income investments, distributions or dividends and capital appreciation, representing the change in the market price of an asset.'

• Looking at the total return, or performance of 45.9% in the last 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A, we see it is relatively smaller, thus worse in comparison to the benchmark SPY (87.8%)
• Compared with SPY (72.9%) in the period of the last 3 years, the total return, or increase in value of 48.8% is lower, thus worse.

CAGR:

'The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a useful measure of growth over multiple time periods. It can be thought of as the growth rate that gets you from the initial investment value to the ending investment value if you assume that the investment has been compounding over the time period.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (13.5%) in the period of the last 5 years, the annual performance (CAGR) of 7.9% of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A is lower, thus worse.
• Compared with SPY (20.1%) in the period of the last 3 years, the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2% is lower, thus worse.

Volatility:

'Volatility is a rate at which the price of a security increases or decreases for a given set of returns. Volatility is measured by calculating the standard deviation of the annualized returns over a given period of time. It shows the range to which the price of a security may increase or decrease. Volatility measures the risk of a security. It is used in option pricing formula to gauge the fluctuations in the returns of the underlying assets. Volatility indicates the pricing behavior of the security and helps estimate the fluctuations that may happen in a short period of time.'

• Looking at the historical 30 days volatility of 10.5% in the last 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (17%)
• Compared with SPY (15.1%) in the period of the last 3 years, the 30 days standard deviation of 9.3% is lower, thus better.

DownVol:

'Downside risk is the financial risk associated with losses. That is, it is the risk of the actual return being below the expected return, or the uncertainty about the magnitude of that difference. Risk measures typically quantify the downside risk, whereas the standard deviation (an example of a deviation risk measure) measures both the upside and downside risk. Specifically, downside risk in our definition is the semi-deviation, that is the standard deviation of all negative returns.'

• The downside deviation over 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A is 7.3%, which is smaller, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (11.7%) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (10.1%) in the period of the last 3 years, the downside deviation of 6.3% is lower, thus better.

Sharpe:

'The Sharpe ratio (also known as the Sharpe index, the Sharpe measure, and the reward-to-variability ratio) is a way to examine the performance of an investment by adjusting for its risk. The ratio measures the excess return (or risk premium) per unit of deviation in an investment asset or a trading strategy, typically referred to as risk, named after William F. Sharpe.'

• The Sharpe Ratio over 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A is 0.51, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.65) in the same period.
• Looking at Sharpe Ratio in of 1.27 in the period of the last 3 years, we see it is relatively higher, thus better in comparison to SPY (1.17).

Sortino:

'The Sortino ratio improves upon the Sharpe ratio by isolating downside volatility from total volatility by dividing excess return by the downside deviation. The Sortino ratio is a variation of the Sharpe ratio that differentiates harmful volatility from total overall volatility by using the asset's standard deviation of negative asset returns, called downside deviation. The Sortino ratio takes the asset's return and subtracts the risk-free rate, and then divides that amount by the asset's downside deviation. The ratio was named after Frank A. Sortino.'

• The ratio of annual return and downside deviation over 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A is 0.73, which is lower, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (0.94) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the ratio of annual return and downside deviation is 1.87, which is higher, thus better than the value of 1.74 from the benchmark.

Ulcer:

'The Ulcer Index is a technical indicator that measures downside risk, in terms of both the depth and duration of price declines. The index increases in value as the price moves farther away from a recent high and falls as the price rises to new highs. The indicator is usually calculated over a 14-day period, with the Ulcer Index showing the percentage drawdown a trader can expect from the high over that period. The greater the value of the Ulcer Index, the longer it takes for a stock to get back to the former high.'

• Looking at the Downside risk index of 7.71 in the last 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A, we see it is relatively lower, thus better in comparison to the benchmark SPY (8.42 )
• During the last 3 years, the Downside risk index is 2.21 , which is smaller, thus better than the value of 3.4 from the benchmark.

MaxDD:

'Maximum drawdown is defined as the peak-to-trough decline of an investment during a specific period. It is usually quoted as a percentage of the peak value. The maximum drawdown can be calculated based on absolute returns, in order to identify strategies that suffer less during market downturns, such as low-volatility strategies. However, the maximum drawdown can also be calculated based on returns relative to a benchmark index, for identifying strategies that show steady outperformance over time.'

• The maximum drop from peak to valley over 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A is -21.3 days, which is larger, thus better compared to the benchmark SPY (-24.5 days) in the same period.
• During the last 3 years, the maximum DrawDown is -11.4 days, which is larger, thus better than the value of -18.8 days from the benchmark.

MaxDuration:

'The Maximum Drawdown Duration is an extension of the Maximum Drawdown. However, this metric does not explain the drawdown in dollars or percentages, rather in days, weeks, or months. It is the length of time the account was in the Max Drawdown. A Max Drawdown measures a retrenchment from when an equity curve reaches a new high. It’s the maximum an account lost during that retrenchment. This method is applied because a valley can’t be measured until a new high occurs. Once the new high is reached, the percentage change from the old high to the bottom of the largest trough is recorded.'

• The maximum time in days below previous high water mark over 5 years of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A is 526 days, which is higher, thus worse compared to the benchmark SPY (488 days) in the same period.
• Compared with SPY (87 days) in the period of the last 3 years, the maximum days below previous high of 120 days is greater, thus worse.

AveDuration:

'The Average Drawdown Duration is an extension of the Maximum Drawdown. However, this metric does not explain the drawdown in dollars or percentages, rather in days, weeks, or months. The Avg Drawdown Duration is the average amount of time an investment has seen between peaks (equity highs), or in other terms the average of time under water of all drawdowns. So in contrast to the Maximum duration it does not measure only one drawdown event but calculates the average of all.'

• Compared with the benchmark SPY (119 days) in the period of the last 5 years, the average days under water of 136 days of PGIM Balanced Fund Class A is larger, thus worse.
• During the last 3 years, the average time in days below previous high water mark is 23 days, which is greater, thus worse than the value of 19 days from the benchmark.