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Is Fidelity Advisor Emerging Asia A (FEAAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Any investors hoping to find a Pacific Rim - Equity fund could think about starting with Fidelity Advisor Emerging Asia A (FEAAX - Free Report) . FEAAX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FEAAX is classified in the Pacific Rim - Equity segment by Zacks, which is an area full of possibilities. Pacific Rim - Equity mutual funds see big investment opportunities in the dominant export-focused markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. These funds also invest less than 10% of their assets in Japanese firms, as Japan mutual funds are very popular.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is responsible for FEAAX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Advisor Emerging Asia A made its debut in March of 1994, FEAAX has garnered more than $135.08 million in assets. The fund is currently managed by John Dance who has been in charge of the fund since September of 2016.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. FEAAX has a 5-year annualized total return of 8.18% and is in the top third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.36%, 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. The standard deviation of FEAAX over the past three years is 15.79% compared to the category average of 10.15%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 14.38% compared to the category average of 9.95%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of. In the most recent bear market, FEAAX lost 57.06% and outperformed its peer group by 1.12%. This might suggest that the fund is a better choice than its peers during a bear market.

Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.93, so investors should note that 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. FEAAX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2.96, demonstrating 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, FEAAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.36% compared to the category average of 1.45%. FEAAX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity Advisor Emerging Asia A has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Advisor Emerging Asia A looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on FEAAX in the Pacific Rim - Equity 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.


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