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Is Fidelity Mid Cap Enhance Index Fund (FMEIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Index fund category, Fidelity Mid Cap Enhance Index Fund could be a potential option. FMEIX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

FMEIX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Mid Cap Enhance Index Fund made its debut in January of 2008 and FMEIX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.45 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. FMEIX has a 5-year annualized total return of 11.74% 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 9.04%, which places it in the middle 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, FMEIX's standard deviation comes in at 22.2%, compared to the category average of 16.77%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 18.23% compared to the category average of 14.34%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 1.15, 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. With a negative alpha of -4.55, managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, FMEIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.59% compared to the category average of 0.81%. From a cost perspective, FMEIX is actually cheaper than its peers.

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

Overall, Fidelity Mid Cap Enhance Index Fund ( FMEIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Mid Cap Enhance Index Fund ( FMEIX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Index, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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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