Any investors hoping to find a Pacific Rim - Equity fund could think about starting with Fidelity Emerging Asia Fund (FSEAX Quick QuoteFSEAX - Free Report) . FSEAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FSEAX is one of many Pacific Rim - Equity funds to choose from. Pacific Rim - Equity mutual funds typically invest in companies throughout the dominant export-focused markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. Since Japan mutual funds are already popular in their own right, these Pacific funds will usually invest less than 10% of their assets in Japanese companies.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is responsible for FSEAX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Emerging Asia Fund debuted in April of 1993. Since then, FSEAX has accumulated assets of about $2.61 billion, according to the most recently available information. Xiaoting Zhao is the fund's current manager and has held that role since June of 2019.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 24.37%, and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 25.07%, 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. Compared to the category average of 19.51%, the standard deviation of FSEAX over the past three years is 20.61%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 17.43% compared to the category average of 16.42%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.75, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. FSEAX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 10.91, demonstrating that 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, FSEAX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.10% compared to the category average of 1.38%. FSEAX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

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

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity Emerging Asia Fund ( FSEAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Pacific Rim - Equity, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.