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Is Fidelity Advisor Gold A (FGDAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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There are plenty of choices in the Mutual Fund Equity Report category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Fidelity Advisor Gold A (FGDAX - Free Report) . FGDAX carries 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

Fidelity is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of FGDAX. The Fidelity Advisor Gold A made its debut in December of 2006 and FGDAX has managed to accumulate roughly $84.25 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Steven Calhoun, has been in charge of the fund since September of 2018.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. FGDAX has a 5-year annualized total return of 5.26% 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 12.29%, 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. FGDAX's standard deviation over the past three years is 36.98% compared to the category average of 18.75%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 30.85% compared to the category average of 16.38%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.71, 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. FGDAX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -0.71, which means 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, FGDAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.07% compared to the category average of 1.34%. From a cost perspective, FGDAX is actually cheaper than its peers.

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 Advisor Gold A ( FGDAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.

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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