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Is Fidelity Overseas Fund (FOSFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Fidelity Overseas Fund (FOSFX - Free Report) . FOSFX has 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
FOSFX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Overseas Fund made its debut in December of 1984, FOSFX has garnered more than $6.91 billion in assets. The fund is currently managed by Vincent Montemaggiore who has been in charge of the fund since January of 2012.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 3.51%, and it sits in the middle 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 3.54%, 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. Over the past three years, FOSFX's standard deviation comes in at 22.17%, compared to the category average of 18.6%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 18.87% compared to the category average of 16.28%. 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. FOSFX has a 5-year beta of 0.95, which means it is likely to be less 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. FOSFX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -6.12, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick 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, FOSFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.97% compared to the category average of 1.15%. So, FOSFX 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 Overseas Fund ( FOSFX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Overseas Fund ( FOSFX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on FOSFXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well 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 Overseas Fund (FOSFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Fidelity Overseas Fund (FOSFX - Free Report) . FOSFX has 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
FOSFX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Overseas Fund made its debut in December of 1984, FOSFX has garnered more than $6.91 billion in assets. The fund is currently managed by Vincent Montemaggiore who has been in charge of the fund since January of 2012.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 3.51%, and it sits in the middle 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 3.54%, 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. Over the past three years, FOSFX's standard deviation comes in at 22.17%, compared to the category average of 18.6%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 18.87% compared to the category average of 16.28%. 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. FOSFX has a 5-year beta of 0.95, which means it is likely to be less 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. FOSFX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -6.12, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick 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, FOSFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.97% compared to the category average of 1.15%. So, FOSFX 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 Overseas Fund ( FOSFX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Overseas Fund ( FOSFX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on FOSFXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well 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.