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Is Fidelity Extended Market Index Adviser (FSEVX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Any investors hoping to find a Mid Cap Blend fund could think about starting with Fidelity Extended Market Index Adviser . FSEVX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FSEVX is one of many funds to choose from. Because Mid Cap Blend mutual funds typically feature a portfolio filled with stocks of various sizes and styles, it allows for a diversification strategy focusing on companies with market caps between $2 billion and $10 billion. Mid-cap blends, while offering exciting growth potential, income opportunities, and value picks, offer some stability as well.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is responsible for FSEVX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Extended Market Index Adviser made its debut in October of 2005, FSEVX has garnered more than $17.84 billion in assets. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 11.74%, 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 8.7%, 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. The standard deviation of FSEVX over the past three years is 12.07% compared to the category average of 9.72%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 11.97% compared to the category average of 9.61%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment. In FSEVX's case, the fund lost 51.91% in the most recent bear market and underperformed its peer group by 0.69%. These results could imply that the fund is a worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment.

Nevertheless, with a 5-year beta of 1.04, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -1.32. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is primarily on equities that are traded in the United States.

As of the last filing date, the mutual fund has 77.63% of its assets in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $6.86 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Finance
  2. Technology
  3. Industrial Cyclical
  4. Other

Turnover is about 12%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than the average comparable fund.

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, FSEVX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.07% compared to the category average of 1.10%. So, FSEVX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $10,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity Extended Market Index Adviser has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Mid Cap Blend 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 FSEVX too for additional information. For analysis of the rest of your portfolio, make sure to visit Zacks.com for our full suite of tools which will help you investigate all of your stocks and funds in one place.