Investment objective & strategy
As of Oct. 22, 2025 · prospectusObjective. The fund has a primary investment objective of providing higher current income than the average income of investment-grade bonds and a secondary objective of capital growth.
Strategy. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in high yield fixed income securities (also known as junk bonds). High-yield fixed income securities are those that are rated below investment grade. The subadviser uses an investment process that focuses on adding value through issue selection, sector/industry selection and opportunistic trading. The subadviser believes that issue selection extends beyond the company to focus on risk/return analysis on an issue-by-issue basis. A company is reviewed and vetted, and then specific issues are selected based on factors such as positions in capital structure, compensation for taking a lower placement on the capital structure or turn of leverage, issue size, … Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in high yield fixed income securities (also known as junk bonds). High-yield fixed income securities are those that are rated below investment grade. The subadviser uses an investment process that focuses on adding value through issue selection, sector/industry selection and opportunistic trading. The subadviser believes that issue selection extends beyond the company to focus on risk/return analysis on an issue-by-issue basis. A company is reviewed and vetted, and then specific issues are selected based on factors such as positions in capital structure, compensation for taking a lower placement on the capital structure or turn of leverage, issue size, call protection, covenant analysis, and finally liquidity. Sector/Industry selection focuses on market inefficiencies, based on the subadvisers anticipation of the fundamental direction of credit quality in each applicable sector or industry. The subadviser generally favors those sectors or industries that it believes have stable to improving fundamentals over sectors or industries with highly volatile business profiles, or irregular cash flows from non-business related activities. The fund will generally overweight those sectors and industries where the subadviser identifies well-valued companies whose business profiles are viewed to be improving. The subadviser generally views as well-valued those companies with seasoned management, solid financials, good liquidity, solid or improving free cash flow generation, appropriate leverage and/or asset protection over a full market cycle, and generally views as improving those companies with fundamentals and financial ratios (e.g., profitability, liquidity or leverage) that are improving over time. The fund is not limited with respect to which sectors and industries in which to focus its investments. The subadviser attempts to maintain the duration of the fund at a level similar to that of its style benchmark, the Bloomberg U.S. High-Yield 2% Issuer Capped Bond Index. Duration measures the interest rate sensitivity of a fixed income security. Generally, the longer the maturity the greater the duration and, therefore, the greater effect interest rate changes have on the price of the security. Typically, for a fund maintaining a modified adjusted duration of 3.5 years, for example, a one percent increase in interest rates would cause a 3.5% decrease in the value of the funds fixed income assets. Similarly, a one percent decrease in interest rates typically would cause the value of the funds fixed income assets to increase by 3.5%. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its assets in high yield fixed income securities. The fund invests primarily in U.S. securities but may invest in foreign securities including those in emerging markets. The Fund may use credit default swaps to increase or hedge (decrease) investment exposure to the high yield credit market or particular high yield fixed income securities.
Top holdings
As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT| Security | Ticker | Value | % of fund |
|---|---|---|---|
| FGP 5.875 04/01/29 144A | FGP | $468.44K | 2.35% |
| Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc. | TCBI | $424.30K | 2.13% |
| ET V6.5 PERP H | ET | $409.18K | 2.05% |
| AES V7.6 01/15/55 | AES | $406.69K | 2.04% |
| BUILDERS FIRSTSOURCE INC REGD 144A P/P 6.37500000 | BLDR | $404.76K | 2.03% |
| CHTR 4.75 03/01/30 144A | CHTR | $403.27K | 2.02% |
| Vistra Corp. | — | $394.13K | 1.98% |
| LIBMUT V4.125 12/15/51 144A | LIBMUT | $385.88K | 1.94% |
| Newell Brands Inc. | — | $276.34K | 1.39% |
| CHS/Community Health Systems, Inc. | — | $268.61K | 1.35% |
Portfolio moves
Dec 31, 2025 → Mar 31, 2026How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.
Similar funds
Funds whose portfolios most overlap this one, by weight| Fund | Overlap | Net exp. |
|---|---|---|
| Virtus Newfleet High Yield Fund · PGHCX, PHCHX, PHCIX, VRHYX | 64% | 0.59% |
| Virtus Newfleet Short Duration High Income Fund · ASHAX, ASHCX, ASHIX, ASHSX | 36% | 0.55% |
| Virtus Newfleet Short Duration High Yield Bond ETF · VSHY | 34% | 0.39% |
Advisers
| Firm | Role |
|---|---|
| Virtus Investment Advisers, LLC | Adviser |
| Virtus Fixed Income Advisers, LLC | Sub-adviser |
Footnotes
- Expense ratio as of October 22, 2025, from the fund's prospectus.
- Net assets and holdings count as of March 31, 2026, from the fund's N-PORT filing.
Machine-readable: JSON · Markdown. Programmatic access via the agent surface.