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Is Fidelity Select FinTech Portfolio (FSVLX) 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 Select FinTech Portfolio (FSVLX - Free Report) . FSVLX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of FSVLX. The Fidelity Select FinTech Portfolio made its debut in December of 1985 and FSVLX has managed to accumulate roughly $107.60 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Ruth Nagle who has been in charge of the fund since February of 2022.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. FSVLX has a 5-year annualized total return of 2.55% and it sits 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 1.16%, 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. Compared to the category average of 28.29%, the standard deviation of FSVLX over the past three years is 33.15%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 27.83% compared to the category average of 24.48%. 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. FSVLX has a 5-year beta of 1.28, 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. FSVLX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -6.93, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick 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, FSVLX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.87% compared to the category average of 1.50%. From a cost perspective, FSVLX 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 Select FinTech Portfolio ( FSVLX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

Your research on the Mutual Fund Equity Report segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer 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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