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Corporate bonds are a good place to pick up yield in the bond market. With yields on government bonds in much of Europe and Japan in negative territory, corporate bonds offer a higher-yielding alternative.
Corporate bonds are a broad universe, though. There are investment-grade corporate bonds, junk bonds, foreign corporate bonds, hybrid corporate bonds, and floating-rate corporate bonds among other variations.
Investment-grade corporate bonds are the largest part of the corporate bond market.
How Much Do Corporate Bonds Yield Today?
We break the investment-grade corporate bond market down into three segments: short-term corporate bonds, intermediate-term corporate bonds, and long-term corporate bonds.
The tables below include yields on Bloomberg Barclay’s Corporate Bond Indices in each maturity segment as well as yields on a selection of the largest bond funds in each segment.
Some of the bond funds invest beyond strictly corporates, but they are representative of what is available in the space.
Short-term Corporate Bond Yields*
| Description | Symbol | Yield |
| Bloomberg Barclay’s 1-3 Yr Corporate | 0.46% | |
| Vanguard Short-term Investment Grade | VFSTX | 0.90% |
| Vanguard Short-term Corporate Index | VSTBX | 0.86% |
| PGIM Short-term Corporate Bond | PBSMX | 0.30% |
Intermediate-term Corporate Bond Yields
| Description | Symbol | Yield |
| Bloomberg Barclay’s Int. Corporate | 1.35% | |
| Vanguard Intermediate-term Investment Grade | VFICX | 1.88% |
| DFA Intermediate-term Extended Quality Portfolio | DFTEX | 1.77% |
| Dodge & Cox Income | DODIX | 1.63% |
Long-term Corporate Bond Yields
| Description | Symbol | Yield |
| Bloomberg Barclay’s Long-term Corporate | 3.22% | |
| Vanguard Long-term Investment Grade | VWESX | 2.82% |
| PIMCO Long-term Credit Bond | PTCIX | 3.23% |
| SPDR Barclays Long Term Corporate Bond ETF | SPLB | 3.47% |
*Most recent yield available on 3/31/21
Young Research’s exclusive institutional research client, Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., (RCY) (Naples, FL and Newport, RI based financial advisor) invests in corporate bonds for clients, but unlike many financial advisors, RCY crafts portfolios of individual bonds. Click the link above to learn more about the firm.
If you are looking for corporate bond yields on junk bonds, check our junk bond yields post.
