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Is Fidelity Latin American Fund (FLATX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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On the lookout for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? Starting with Fidelity Latin American Fund (FLATX - Free Report) is one possibility. FLATX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
Fidelity is responsible for FLATX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Latin American Fund made its debut in April of 1993 and FLATX has managed to accumulate roughly $274.18 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by William Pruett who has been in charge of the fund since October of 2015.
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 0.26%, and is in the bottom 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 -2.72%, which places it in the bottom 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. The standard deviation of FLATX over the past three years is 35.23% compared to the category average of 17.67%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 31.12% compared to the category average of 15.67%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FLATX has a 5-year beta of 1.1, which means it 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. FLATX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -9.59, which means managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, FLATX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.04% compared to the category average of 1.15%. So, FLATX 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 Latin American Fund ( FLATX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Latin American Fund ( FLATX ) looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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 FLATX too 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 Fidelity Latin American Fund (FLATX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
On the lookout for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? Starting with Fidelity Latin American Fund (FLATX - Free Report) is one possibility. FLATX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
Fidelity is responsible for FLATX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Latin American Fund made its debut in April of 1993 and FLATX has managed to accumulate roughly $274.18 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by William Pruett who has been in charge of the fund since October of 2015.
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 0.26%, and is in the bottom 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 -2.72%, which places it in the bottom 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. The standard deviation of FLATX over the past three years is 35.23% compared to the category average of 17.67%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 31.12% compared to the category average of 15.67%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FLATX has a 5-year beta of 1.1, which means it 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. FLATX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -9.59, which means managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, FLATX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.04% compared to the category average of 1.15%. So, FLATX 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 Latin American Fund ( FLATX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Latin American Fund ( FLATX ) looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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 FLATX too 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.