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Is Fidelity International Enhanced Index Fund (FIENX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Any investors who are searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds should take a look at Fidelity International Enhanced Index Fund . The fund does not have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, though we have been able to explore other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

FIENX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity International Enhanced Index Fund made its debut in January of 2008 and FIENX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.22 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. FIENX has a 5-year annualized total return of -1.64% 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 -1.55%, 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, FIENX's standard deviation comes in at 19.04%, compared to the category average of 18.73%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 16.74% compared to the category average of 16.6%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.82, the fund 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. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -8.7. This means 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, FIENX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.58% compared to the category average of 0.79%. From a cost perspective, FIENX 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

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Equity Report, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.

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