There are plenty of choices in the Mutual Fund Bond category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that may not be worth investigating is Fidelity Conservative Income Bond . FCONX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
FCONX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Conservative Income Bond made its debut in March of 2011 and FCONX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.94 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.45%, and it sits 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 1.42%, which places it in the middle 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 8.38%, the standard deviation of FCONX over the past three years is 1.01%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 0.79% compared to the category average of 6.93%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
FCONX carries a beta of 0.08, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 0.24, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
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, FCONX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.35% compared to the category average of 0.77%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, FCONX is actually cheaper than its peers.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $0, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Conservative Income Bond ( FCONX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Conservative Income Bond ( FCONX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
Want even more information about FCONX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis 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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Is FCONX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
There are plenty of choices in the Mutual Fund Bond category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that may not be worth investigating is Fidelity Conservative Income Bond . FCONX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
FCONX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Conservative Income Bond made its debut in March of 2011 and FCONX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.94 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.45%, and it sits 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 1.42%, which places it in the middle 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 8.38%, the standard deviation of FCONX over the past three years is 1.01%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 0.79% compared to the category average of 6.93%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
FCONX carries a beta of 0.08, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 0.24, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
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, FCONX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.35% compared to the category average of 0.77%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, FCONX is actually cheaper than its peers.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $0, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Conservative Income Bond ( FCONX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Conservative Income Bond ( FCONX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
Want even more information about FCONX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis 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.