Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is Fidelity Dividend Growth Fund (FDGFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

If you have been looking for Large Cap Blend funds, a place to start could be Fidelity Dividend Growth Fund (FDGFX - Free Report) . FDGFX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FDGFX is classified in the Large Cap Blend segment by Zacks, which is an area full of potential. Targeting companies with market caps of more than $10 billion, Large Cap Blend mutual funds offer a stable investment choice; these funds are perfect for investors with a " buy and hold " mindset. Since blended funds mix large, more established firms into their portfolios, investors are exposed to both value and growth opportunities.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of FDGFX. Since Fidelity Dividend Growth Fund made its debut in April of 1993, FDGFX has garnered more than $6.03 billion in assets. The fund is currently managed by Gordon Scott who has been in charge of the fund since April of 2017.

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 10.69%, and is 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 13.2%, 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. FDGFX's standard deviation over the past three years is 8.78% compared to the category average of 9.64%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 9.28% compared to the category average of 9.41%. 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 FDGFX's case, the fund lost 56% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 6.33%. This makes the fund a possibly better choice than its peers during a sliding market environment.

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FDGFX has a 5-year beta of 0.95, which means it is likely to be less 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. FDGFX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2.29, demonstrating that 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, FDGFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.50% compared to the category average of 1%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, FDGFX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $0; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity Dividend Growth Fund ( FDGFX ) 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 great potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Large 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 FDGFX too for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Fidelity Dividend Growth (FDGFX) - free report >>

Published in