10x Insights
Loading account…
MTLFX

MFS Municipal Limited Maturity Fund

Actively managedBondsOpen-end fund
MFS Series Trust IX: MTLFX · MTLBX · MTLCX · MTLIX · MTLRXHoldings as of Apr 30, 2026Filed Jun 29, 2026

Actively managed U.S. bond fund

As of its 2026 Q2 report, MFS Municipal Limited Maturity Fund held 1,064 positions with $3.11B in net assets. Its ten largest holdings made up 9.5% of the fund. The MTLFX share class costs 0.59% a year. Over the 12 months to May 2026, MTLFX returned 4.7%, with dividends reinvested. In 2026 Q3 it added 57 new positions and exited 78.

2026 Q2 holdings and allocationChanges are against the previous quarter, 2026 Q2Headline fees and returns use the MTLFX share class
Expense ratio · MTLFX
0.59%
$59 a year for every $10,000 invested
0.36% – 1.44% across the 5 classes
$3.11B
The whole fund, all share classes
1,064 holdings
9.5%in the top 10
Weight held in the ten largest holdings
Top 25 hold 16.9%
Return, 1 year · MTLFX
+4.7%
With dividends, to May 2026
3 yr total +12.7% · 5 yr total +7.7%
What this fund is
Objective, as filed

The funds investment objective is to seek total return with an emphasis on income exempt from U.S. federal income tax, but also considering capital preservation.

Strategy, summarised

The fund invests primarily in municipal bonds exempt from U.S. federal income tax, selected through bottom-up fundamental analysis of individual issuers and instruments, with a dollar-weighted average maturity normally not exceeding five years. The fund maintains at least 80% of assets in federally tax-exempt municipal securities but may hold up to 25% or more in similar-purpose projects such as education, healthcare, or utilities, and may concentrate a significant portion in issuers within a single state or small number of states. The fund may invest in below-investment-grade municipal debt and may use derivatives to adjust market or interest-rate exposure. Because the fund may concentrate assets in a limited number of states or project types, performance depends on conditions affecting those specific issuers and sectors.

What you own

per cent of the fund
CompanyWeightValue
MFS Institutional Money Market Portfolio
3.62%
$112.69M
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
5.00% floating · due 2050-11-01
0.82%
$25.39M
Collier County Industrial Development Authority
5.00% · due 2035-04-01
0.71%
$22.23M
California Community Choice Financing Authority
5.00% floating · due 2056-01-01
0.71%
$22.21M
California Community Choice Financing Authority
5.25% floating · due 2054-01-01
0.71%
$22.03M
Tennessee Energy Acquisition Corp.
5.00% floating · due 2053-05-01
0.63%
$19.56M
Wisconsin Health & Educational Facilities Authority
5.00% floating · due 2046-12-01
0.60%
$18.60M
San Francisco City & County Airport Comm-San Francisco International Airport
5.00% · due 2033-05-01
0.59%
$18.32M
Colorado Health Facilities Authority
5.00% floating · due 2049-11-15
0.58%
$17.93M
Tennergy Corp.
5.50% floating · due 2053-10-01
0.54%
$16.91M
Showing 1–10 of 1,064 · the top 10 are 9.51% of the fund, the top 25 are 16.88%

The 200 largest of 1,064 holdings, with the share counts as filed, open with a free account.

What the fund is made of

Percentages are of fund net assets. Rounding, liabilities and short positions can make totals differ from 100%.

100.70%
of net assets
Bonds96.89%
Cash & short-term3.62%
Securitized0.19%

How it has done

Total return, dividends reinvested · to May 2026

MTLFX share class · total returns with dividends reinvested

1 year
+4.69%
3 years
+12.71%
Cumulative, not per year
5 years
+7.72%
Cumulative, not per year
Largest decline in 3 years
-1.70%
From a previous high to a later low
Cumulative return, last three years· Aug 2023 – May 2026

Volatility over the last 12 months: 2.45%. Past returns are a record, not a forecast.

Jun 2026 and Jul 2026 have been filed since the trailing figures were struck, so they are not in the table above or the curve — every figure here shares one cut-off, which is what makes them comparable with other funds.

The 5 share classes hold the same portfolio

Share classExpense ratio1 year3 years5 yearsWorst fall
0.59%+4.69%+12.71%+7.72%-1.70%
1.34%+3.92%+10.23%+3.76%-1.76%
1.44%+3.93%+10.00%+3.37%-1.77%
0.44%+4.84%+13.18%+8.49%-1.69%
0.36%+4.94%+13.47%+8.92%-1.68%

These classes hold the same portfolio, so the 5.56pp spread over 5 years is the cost difference between them — roughly 1.11pp a year — not a difference in what they own.

Fees & fund details

MFS Municipal Limited Maturity Fund is an actively managed U.S. bond fund.

Asset class
Bonds
Region
United States
Management
Actively managed
Fund type
Open-end fund
Credit quality
Investment grade
Rate sensitivity
Short duration
Expense ratio, by class
0.36% – 1.44%· MTLFX 0.59%
Portfolio turnover
29.00% a year · as of 2025 Q3

Net is what a holder pays after the adviser's contractual waiver; gross is before it. A waiver can expire.

Turnover is how much of the portfolio was replaced in a year.

Classified from what the fund holds, not from its name · 2026 Q2. The summary is a paraphrase of the prospectus; the objective is verbatim.

What changed this quarter

2026 Q3 vs 2026 Q2

Positions that entered or left the fund since its previous filing. Positions that were only resized are not listed.

57 new· the largest 7

Massachusetts Development Finance Agency
City of Manhattan KS
Shelby County Health Educational & Housing Facilities Board
Public Finance Authority
Illinois Finance Authority
Lynchburg Economic Development Authority
University of South Alabama
2 holdings

78 exited· the largest 8

Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority
Virginia Housing Development Authority
New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority
Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp.
Connecticut State Higher Education Supplement Loan Authority
Escambia County Housing Finance Authority
New York City Housing Development Corp.

Debt profile

What this fund holds — value-weighted across its bond and securitized long positions · as of 2026-04-30

Avg coupon
4.60%
Avg maturity
11.96 yr
Coupon type

Share of the fund's debt by how its coupon behaves — the fact that decides whether a rate move reaches this portfolio at all.

32%
floating
Fixed rate66.3%
Floating rate31.7%
Zero-coupon or unclassified2.1%
Maturity ladder

Share of the fund's debt value in each maturity band, shortest first.

<1y10y+
<1y5.7%
1-3y12.7%
3-5y12.0%
5-10y34.8%
10y+34.8%
Flagged holdings
Defaulted: 0.07% · $2.21M · 2 positions
In arrears: none reported
Paid in kind: none reported

These three overlap — one holding can be in arrears and paying in kind at once — so they are shown separately and never summed.

Risk profile

Interest-rate and credit-spread sensitivity, both in years · as of 2026Q2

More of this fund’s sensitivity sits in credit spreads than in interest rates — a rate rally that comes with a credit selloff works against it.

2.90 yr
approx. move per 100bp
3.84 yr
approx. move per 100bp
If rates and spreads both rise 100bp

Where the loss would come from. The two shocks are the same size, so this is the balance of the fund's two sensitivities rather than a bet on one moving more.

≈ -6.5%
of value
Credit spreads57%
Interest rates43%

Filers report the impact of a 0.01% move only, so the total is our own scaling of that one number and overstates the loss on most bonds — read it as approximate, never as precise. The two sensitivities overlap rather than add up: they measure the same positions against different shocks, which is why the durations above are shown side by side and never summed.

Credit risk by quality

Share of the fund's spread duration carried by each credit tier.

+3.84
yrs total
Investment grade+3.48 yr
High yield+0.36 yr
Where the risk sits on the curve

Share of duration at each point, shortest first. A positive figure loses value when spreads widen; a negative one offsets — a credit hedge.

Interest rate2.90 yr total
3 mo30 yr
3 mo0.07 yr3%
1 yr0.37 yr13%
5 yr1.40 yr48%
10 yr0.99 yr34%
30 yr0.07 yr2%
Credit spread3.84 yr total
3 mo30 yr
3 mo0.04 yr1%
1 yr0.51 yr13%
5 yr1.98 yr52%
10 yr1.25 yr33%
30 yr0.06 yr2%

The two bands measure the same positions against different shocks and do not add — a Treasury carries rate duration and no spread duration, a floating-rate credit the reverse. Rate tenors are also summed across every currency the fund discloses.

Show the numbers
TenorRate yrsIG yrsHY yrsIG $/bpHY $/bp
3 mo+0.07+0.03+0.00$9.6k$1.4k
1 yr+0.37+0.44+0.07$138.4k$20.7k
5 yr+1.40+1.82+0.16$565.5k$49.8k
10 yr+0.99+1.13+0.12$350.0k$38.7k
30 yr+0.07+0.06+0.01$17.3k$2.7k

Dollar change per 1bp of spread movement, as filed and sign-anchored. A blank cell was not filed; a zero was.

A newer credit-spread reading (2026Q3) is on file. This page holds one quarter across every figure on it, so that one appears here next quarter.

Connected research

Understand how this fund fits with the rest.

Explore shared holdings, compare funds and follow their businesses with your connected AI:

  • “Where do my funds overlap — MTLFX, QQQ and the fund in my 401(k)?”
  • “How do this fund’s ten biggest holdings stack up against each other?”
  • “For my target-date fund, what’s the real stock-and-bond mix once you look through it?”
See how it works →All research tools with a subscription. Use your own AI account.