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Is Fidelity Select Financial Services (FIDSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, a potential starting could be Fidelity Select Financial Services (FIDSX - Free Report) . FIDSX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

FIDSX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Select Financial Services made its debut in December of 1981, and since then, FIDSX has accumulated about $819.77 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, Matt Reed, has been in charge of the fund since June of 2019.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 12.38%, and it sits 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 17.61%, 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. FIDSX's standard deviation over the past three years is 25.29% compared to the category average of 25.84%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 21.85% compared to the category average of 22.24%. This makes the fund less 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. 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. With a negative alpha of -3.36, 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, FIDSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.73% compared to the category average of 1.47%. So, FIDSX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

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 Select Financial Services ( FIDSX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Select Financial Services ( FIDSX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about FIDSX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis 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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