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Is Fidelity New Millennium (FMILX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Any investors hoping to find an All Cap Growth fund might consider looking past Fidelity New Millennium (FMILX - Free Report) . FMILX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FMILX is part of the All Cap Growth category, which is a segment that boasts an array of other possible options. All Cap Growth mutual funds aim to invest in various equity securities, regardless of company size that exhibit growth characteristics. These portfolios have holdings across the cap levels-- small, medium and large-cap-- in order to increase diversification throughout the fund.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of FMILX. Fidelity New Millennium debuted in December of 1992. Since then, FMILX has accumulated assets of about $2.90 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by John D. Roth who has been in charge of the fund since July of 2006.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. FMILX has a 5-year annualized total return of 8.23% and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 10.73%, 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. Over the past three years, FMILX's standard deviation comes in at 11.84%, compared to the category average of 14.73%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 12% compared to the category average of 14.02%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. In FMILX's case, the fund lost 52.14% in the most recent bear market and underperformed its peer group by 2%. This could mean that the fund is a worse choice than comparable funds during a bear market.

Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.96, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. 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. FMILX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2, demonstrating 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 principally on equities that are traded in the United States.

Right now, 89.91% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, with an average market capitalization of $66.56 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Finance
  2. Industrial Cyclical
  3. Other
This fund's turnover is about 28%, so the fund managers are making 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, FMILX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.67% compared to the category average of 1.14%. FMILX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity New Millennium ( FMILX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity New Millennium ( FMILX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on FMILXin the All Cap Growth 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. 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.


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