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Is Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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If investors are looking at the Sector - Precious Metal fund category, Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX - Free Report) could be a potential option. FSAGX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
We note that FSAGX is a Sector - Precious Metal option, and this area is loaded with different options. Sector - Precious Metal funds typically invest in companies that are involved in the mining and production of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Because stocks in this environment often trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity--they are tied to the prices of the metal--these equities tend to be volatile.
History of Fund/Manager
FSAGX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio made its debut in December of 1985 and since then, FSAGX has accumulated about $1.12 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, Joe Wickwire, has been in charge of the fund since August of 2007.
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 -13.01%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 10.13%, 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. FSAGX's standard deviation over the past three years is 37.2% compared to the category average of 14.82%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 37.71% compared to the category average of 37.88%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, FSAGX lost 29.4% and outperformed its peer group by 6.67%. This means that the fund could possibly be a better choice than its peers during a down market environment.
And for investors concerned about the potential drawdown in a really bad calendar year, we can look back to 2008 for that figure. The fund lost over 20.49%, its worst calendar year in a decade.
Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of -0.15, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. 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. FSAGX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -4.91, 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, FSAGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.84% compared to the category average of 1.40%. FSAGX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio FSAGX has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Sector - Precious Metal 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 FSAGX too for additional information. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.
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Is Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
If investors are looking at the Sector - Precious Metal fund category, Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX - Free Report) could be a potential option. FSAGX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
We note that FSAGX is a Sector - Precious Metal option, and this area is loaded with different options. Sector - Precious Metal funds typically invest in companies that are involved in the mining and production of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Because stocks in this environment often trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity--they are tied to the prices of the metal--these equities tend to be volatile.
History of Fund/Manager
FSAGX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio made its debut in December of 1985 and since then, FSAGX has accumulated about $1.12 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, Joe Wickwire, has been in charge of the fund since August of 2007.
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 -13.01%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 10.13%, 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. FSAGX's standard deviation over the past three years is 37.2% compared to the category average of 14.82%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 37.71% compared to the category average of 37.88%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, FSAGX lost 29.4% and outperformed its peer group by 6.67%. This means that the fund could possibly be a better choice than its peers during a down market environment.
And for investors concerned about the potential drawdown in a really bad calendar year, we can look back to 2008 for that figure. The fund lost over 20.49%, its worst calendar year in a decade.
Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of -0.15, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. 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. FSAGX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -4.91, 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, FSAGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.84% compared to the category average of 1.40%. FSAGX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio FSAGX has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Sector - Precious Metal 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 FSAGX too for additional information. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.