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Is Fidelity International Capital Appreciation (FIVFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you're looking for a Non US - Equity fund category, then a potential option is Fidelity International Capital Appreciation (FIVFX - Free Report) . FIVFX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FIVFX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. Non US - Equity funds focus their investments on companies outside of the United States, which is an important distinction since global mutual funds tend to keep a sizable portion of their portfolio based in the United States. Most of these funds will allocate across emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is responsible for FIVFX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity International Capital Appreciation made its debut in November of 1994, FIVFX has garnered more than $5.17 billion in assets. The fund's current manager, Sammy Simnegar, has been in charge of the fund since January of 2008.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 13.31%, and is in the top third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 12.28%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.

When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past three years, FIVFX's standard deviation comes in at 15.72%, compared to the category average of 17.53%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 13.61% compared to the category average of 15.05%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.76, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. FIVFX's 5-year performance has produced a positive alpha of 0.81, which means managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, FIVFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.99% compared to the category average of 1.19%. So, FIVFX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity International Capital Appreciation ( FIVFX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity International Capital Appreciation ( FIVFX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Non US - Equity, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.


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