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Is Fidelity Asset Manager 50% (FASMX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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On the lookout for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? Starting with Fidelity Asset Manager 50% (FASMX - Free Report) is one possibility. FASMX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

FASMX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Asset Manager 50% made its debut in December of 1988, and since then, FASMX has accumulated about $8.11 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. 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 has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 6.04%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 7.44%, which places it in the bottom 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. FASMX's standard deviation over the past three years is 10.78% compared to the category average of 14.5%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 9.5% compared to the category average of 12.94%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FASMX has a 5-year beta of 0.55, which means it is likely to be less 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -1.84, which shows that 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, FASMX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.60% compared to the category average of 0.86%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, FASMX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $0; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity Asset Manager 50% ( FASMX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on FASMXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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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