1Q 2025 Municipal Bond Market Insights
PGIM Fixed Income’s Head of Municipal Bonds, Jason Appleson, shares insights on the economy, interest rates, and opportunities in the municipal bond market.
The Muni Bond Opportunity
Leveraging tax-exempt income to help improve tax-adjusted return potential
WHY CONSIDER INVESTING IN MUNIS
Municipal bonds, or munis, are debt securities issued by states, countries, cities, agencies, and local districts to finance capital and infrastructure projects, such as roads and bridges, airports, schools, administrative buildings, and other public projects. Generally, muni bonds provide tax-exempt income from federal taxes as interest on most muni bonds is generally exempt from regular federal income tax. Therefore, muni bonds may offer tax shelter1 potential for investors. The interest may also be exempt from state and local taxes if you reside in the state where the bond is issued.
TAX-EXEMPT INCOME
Municipal bonds typically offer attractive after-tax income and yields relative to taxable investment grade bonds.
LOW DEFAULT RATES
Historically, municipal bonds have exhibited lower default rates relative to other fixed income asset classes, including investment grade corporate bonds2.
ENHANCED DIVERSIFICATION
With lower correlations to the S&P 500 than other fixed income asset classes, munis offer more diversification in tax-efficient portfolios.
WHY PGIM FIXED INCOME FOR MUNIS?
Municipal bonds comprise a complex, highly fragmented and inefficient asset class, providing ample opportunity to help pursue outperformance via active management. With over 140 years of experience, PGIM Fixed Income is one of the industry’s largest and most-experienced fixed income asset managers. We have a deep bench of portfolio managers, credit research analysts, and quantitative and risk management analysts who work together as equals to optimize active fixed income solutions for our investors. Few other fixed income managers can match the resources in both risk management and credit research that PGIM Fixed Income has built. Our 12-member municipal bond investment team provides specialized boutique-style investment research leveraging the firm’s vast institutional framework and infrastructure.
OUR EXPERTISE
12
Muni investment management team members with an average of 19 years of experience20+ years
Investing in municipal bonds140+ years
Heritage of managing risks*
RELATED INSIGHTS
Elevated Tax-Exempt Yields Boost Muni Appeal
Attractive tax-exempt muni yields present compelling opportunities for investors to enhance income and diversification.
1A tax shelter is a vehicle to lower taxable income, such as through tax-advantaged accounts like municipal bonds which provide tax-exempt income.
2 Source: Moody’s Investor Services as of 12/31/2023.
* PGIM Fixed Income’s investment approach and strong focus on risk management can be traced back to 1875, when Prudential Financial started managing assets for its general account. In fact, the prominence of risk management in its investment process was one-way PGIM Fixed Income was able to weather the storm during the 2008 financial crisis.
S&P 500 Index is an unmanaged index of 500 common stocks of large U.S. companies, weighted by market capitalization. It gives a broad look at how U.S. stock prices have performed.
The Bloomberg 1 Year Municipal Bond Index measures the performance of USD-denominated long-term, tax-exempt bond market with maturities of 1 year, including state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, insured bonds, and pre-refunded bonds. The Bloomberg Municipal 1-15 Year Index measures the performance of USD-denominated long-term, tax-exempt bond market with maturities of 1-15 years, including state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, insured bonds, and pre- refunded bonds. Bloomberg 1-8 Yr Municipal Index is an unmanaged index that includes all benchmark eligible investment grade municipal bonds with maturities from 1 to 8 years. Bloomberg Municipal Bond Index is an unmanaged index of long-term investment-grade municipal bonds. Bloomberg Municipal High Yield Bond Index is an unmanaged index of Ba1 or lower or “not-rated” bonds by Moody’s, S&P, and/or Fitch. Bloomberg California 1-15 Yr Municipal Index is a subset of the Bloomberg U.S. Municipal Index that covers the USD-denominated long-term tax-exempt bond market. The index has four main sectors: state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, insured bonds and prerefunded bonds. The California 1-15 Yr index contains bonds with maturities between 1 and 15 years issued by municipalities in California. An investment cannot be made directly in an index or average. All indexes and averages are unmanaged.
ETF shares are not individually redeemable from the Fund. Shares may only be redeemed directly from the Fund by Authorized Participants in creation units only.
Risks of investing ETFs may include but not limited to ETFs trade at a premium or discount to net asset value or lack an active trading market, may be less liquid and may be subject to brokerage commission or other charges. The Funds may be subject to authorized participant concentration risk, since the Funds have a limited number of intermediaries that act as authorized participants and none of these authorized participants are or will be obligated to engage in creation or redemption transactions. To the extent that these intermediaries exit the business or are unable to or choose not to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Funds and no other authorized participant creates or redeems, shares of the Fund may trade at a discount to NAV and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting. The Funds are subject to debt obligations risk: debt obligations are subject to credit risk, market risk and interest rate risk and may also be subject to call and redemption risk, which is the risk that the issue may call a bond held by the Funds before maturity and the Funds may not be able to reinvest at the same rate; and municipal bonds and notes risk, where the Funds’ holdings, share price, yield and total return may fluctuate in response to bond market movements and municipal bond market movements. The Funds may purchase municipal bonds that are insured to attempt to reduce credit risk but does not provide protection against market fluctuations. Municipal lease obligations are typically not subject to the same voter approval and debt limits as other municipal securities, may be less secure as they are not obligations of the issuers, and may not have an active market. High yield ("junk") bonds are subject to greater credit and market risks. Variable and floating rate bonds are subject to credit, market and interest rate risks, may have a limited market, and may be subject to extended settlement periods. Zero coupon bonds may experience greater volatility due to changes in interest rates. The PGIM Ultra Short Municipal Bond ETF and the PGIM Municipal Income Opportunities ETF may be subject to new/small fund risk given their recently commenced operations and limited operating history. Derivatives may carry market, credit and liquidity risks. Unlike other ETFs, the Funds are subject to cash transaction risk as it may effect creation and redemptions in cash or partially cash so that the Funds may be less tax-efficient than an investment in an ETF that distributes portfolio securities in-kind. All or a portion of the Funds’ dividends may be taken in account in determining the federal alternative minimum tax for individuals and may have other tax consequences. There is no guarantee the Funds’ objectives will be achieved. Risks are more fully explained in the Funds’ prospectuses. Fixed income investments are subject to credit, market, and interest rate risk, and their value will decline as interest rates rise. The risks associated with the Funds are more fully explained in their prospectus. These risks may increase the Funds’ share price volatility. There is no guarantee the Funds’ objective will be achieved.
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