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Is Fidelity Emerging Markets K (FKEMX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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There are plenty of choices in the Non US - Equity category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Fidelity Emerging Markets K (FKEMX - Free Report) . FKEMX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
Zacks categorizes FKEMX as Non US - Equity, a segment stacked high with options. Non US - Equity mutual funds like to invest in companies outside of the United States, an important characteristic since global mutual funds are known to keep a good portion of their portfolio stateside. These kinds of funds can often extend across all cap levels, and will typically allocate their investments between emerging and developed markets.
History of Fund/Manager
FKEMX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Emerging Markets K made its debut in May of 2008, FKEMX has garnered more than $981.22 million in assets. The fund is currently managed by Sammy Simnegar who has been in charge of the fund since October of 2012.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 5.97%, and is 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 9.72%, 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 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 14.28% compared to the category average of 1.25%. This makes the fund more 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.
Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FKEMX has a 5-year beta of 0.87, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. FKEMX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2.89, 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, FKEMX is a no load fund and it has an expense ratio of 0.77%.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $0 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Bottom Line
This puts this fund from Fidelity in the top 20% of all mutual funds we have a rank on right now. As a result, this is likely an excellent choice for investors seeking an option in the Non US - Equity category.
Your research on the Non US - Equity 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. 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.
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Is Fidelity Emerging Markets K (FKEMX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
There are plenty of choices in the Non US - Equity category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Fidelity Emerging Markets K (FKEMX - Free Report) . FKEMX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
Zacks categorizes FKEMX as Non US - Equity, a segment stacked high with options. Non US - Equity mutual funds like to invest in companies outside of the United States, an important characteristic since global mutual funds are known to keep a good portion of their portfolio stateside. These kinds of funds can often extend across all cap levels, and will typically allocate their investments between emerging and developed markets.
History of Fund/Manager
FKEMX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Emerging Markets K made its debut in May of 2008, FKEMX has garnered more than $981.22 million in assets. The fund is currently managed by Sammy Simnegar who has been in charge of the fund since October of 2012.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 5.97%, and is 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 9.72%, 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 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 14.28% compared to the category average of 1.25%. This makes the fund more 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.
Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FKEMX has a 5-year beta of 0.87, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. FKEMX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2.89, 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, FKEMX is a no load fund and it has an expense ratio of 0.77%.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $0 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Bottom Line
This puts this fund from Fidelity in the top 20% of all mutual funds we have a rank on right now. As a result, this is likely an excellent choice for investors seeking an option in the Non US - Equity category.
Your research on the Non US - Equity 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. 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.