3 Top-Ranked High-Yield Bond Funds to Boost Returns While Cutting Risk

For an average investor, high-yield bond mutual funds are the best way to invest in bonds rated below investment grade, popularly known as junk bonds. This is because these funds hold a wide range of securities that reduce portfolio risk. In addition, these funds provide better returns than investments with higher ratings, including government and corporate bonds. Since the yield from such bonds is higher than that of investment-grade securities, they are less susceptible to interest rate fluctuations.

Below, we share with you three top-ranked high-yield bond mutual funds, namely Massmutual Premier High Yield Fund MPHAX, Northern Multi-manager High Yield Opportunity Fund NMHYX and JPMorgan High Yield Fund OHYAX. Each has earned 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 funds.

Massmutual Premier High Yield Fund invests most of its assets, along with borrowings, if any, in U.S. debt securities that are unrated or below investment grade. MPHAX advisors consider lower-rated fixed income securities as those that are rated below Baa3 by Moody's, below BBB- by Standard & Poor's or the equivalent by any NRSRO.

Massmutual Premier High Yield Fund has three-year annualized returns of 9.2%. As of the end of September 2025, MPHAX held 57.1% of its net assets in miscellaneous bonds.

Northern Multi-manager High Yield Opportunity Fund invests most of its assets in domestic and foreign bonds and other fixed-income securities that are rated below investment grade. NMHYX uses a "multi-manager" approach whereby the fund's assets are allocated to one or more sub-advisers, based on the discretion of the fund's investment advisor.

Northern Multi-manager High Yield Opportunity Fund has three-year annualized returns of 8.8%. NMHYX has an expense ratio of 0.7%.

JPMorgan High Yield Fund invests most of its assets in bonds, other debt securities, loan assignments and participations and preferred stocks that are rated below investment grade or unrated. OHYAX advisors generally have average weighted maturity in the range of three to 10 years.

JPMorgan High Yield Fund has three-year annualized returns of 8.7%. Thomas G. Hauser has been the fund manager of OHYAX since September 2019.

To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all high-yield bond funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of high-yield bond funds.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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