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Is Fidelity Advisor Semiconductors A (FELAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Sector - Tech funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Fidelity Advisor Semiconductors A (FELAX - Free Report) . FELAX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

The world of Sector - Tech funds is an area filled with options, and FELAX is one of them. Sector - Tech mutual funds allow investors to own a stake in a notoriously volatile sector with a much more diversified approach. Tech companies can be in any number of industries such as semiconductors, software, internet, networking just to name a few.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of FELAX. Fidelity Advisor Semiconductors A made its debut in December of 2000, and since then, FELAX has accumulated about $96.56 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. Stephen Barwikowski is the fund's current manager and has held that role since January of 2009.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 23.38%, 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 27.96%, 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 FELAX over the past three years is 17.07% compared to the category average of 10.36%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 16.1% compared to the category average of 10.03%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. In FELAX's case, the fund lost 57.28% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 3.97%. This means that the fund could possibly be a better choice than its peers during a down market environment.

Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.13, which means it is hypothetically more 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. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a positive alpha of 7.48. This means that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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, FELAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.16% compared to the category average of 1.35%. So, FELAX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity Advisor Semiconductors A ( FELAX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Advisor Semiconductors A ( FELAX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about FELAX? 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. 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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