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Is Fidelity Select Retailing (FSRPX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Sector - Other fund category, Fidelity Select Retailing (FSRPX - Free Report) could be a potential option. FSRPX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

FSRPX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Select Retailing made its debut in December of 1985, FSRPX has garnered more than $4.61 billion in assets. The fund's current manager, Boris Shepov, has been in charge of the fund since May of 2018.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 23.72%, and it sits 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 23.71%, 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. FSRPX's standard deviation over the past three years is 22.61% compared to the category average of 24.37%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 18.71% compared to the category average of 20.01%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 1.14, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 3.31, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, FSRPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.73% compared to the category average of 1.27%. FSRPX 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 Select Retailing ( FSRPX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Select Retailing ( FSRPX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Sector - Other area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into FSRPX too for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.


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