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Is Fidelity Asset Manager 85% (FAMRX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Having trouble finding an Allocation Balanced fund? Fidelity Asset Manager 85% (FAMRX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. FAMRX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FAMRX is one of many Zacks' Allocation Balanced mutual funds to pick from. Allocation Balanced funds seek to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, though including precious metals or commodities is not unusual; these funds are mostly categorized by their respective asset allocation. Investors utilize Allocation Balanced funds as a way to get a good start with diversified mutual funds, as well as for core holdings in a portfolio of funds.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is responsible for FAMRX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Asset Manager 85% made its debut in September of 1999 and FAMRX has managed to accumulate roughly $3.01 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Geoffrey Stein is the fund's current manager and has held that role since June of 2009.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 14.26%, 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 11.31%, 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. FAMRX's standard deviation over the past three years is 16.9% compared to the category average of 15.1%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 13.73% compared to the category average of 12.64%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.89, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -0.69, which shows 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, FAMRX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.69% compared to the category average of 0.89%. FAMRX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

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 Asset Manager 85% ( FAMRX ) 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.

This could just be the start of your research on FAMRXin the Allocation Balanced 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. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.


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