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Is Fidelity New Millennium (FMILX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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All Cap Growth fund seekers should consider taking a look at Fidelity New Millennium (FMILX - Free Report) . FMILX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

We note that FMILX is an All Cap Growth option, and is loaded with different selections. All Cap Growth mutual funds look to invest in a wide variety of equities, no matter the size of the company and as long as the firm exhibits growth characteristics. In order to increase diversification, these portfolios have holdings across small, medium, and large-cap levels.

History of Fund/Manager

FMILX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity New Millennium made its debut in December of 1992 and FMILX has managed to accumulate roughly $2.02 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by John D. Roth who has been in charge of the fund since July of 2006.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 2.25%, and is in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of -0.92%, 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. Over the past three years, FMILX's standard deviation comes in at 17.31%, compared to the category average of 15.96%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 15.28% compared to the category average of 14.32%. 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 FMILX's case, the fund lost 52.14% in the most recent bear market and underperformed comparable funds by 2%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment.

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.07, so it is likely going to be 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -4.38, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is largely on equities that are traded in the United States.

As of the last filing date, the mutual fund has 84.16% of its assets in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $79.15 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Finance
  2. Industrial Cyclical
  3. Technology
With turnover at about 34%, this fund is making fewer trades than its comparable peers.

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, FMILX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.61% compared to the category average of 0.96%. FMILX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $0, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity New Millennium ( FMILX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity New Millennium ( FMILX ) looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the All Cap Growth area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into FMILX too 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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