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Is Fidelity Japan Fund (FJPNX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, consider Fidelity Japan Fund (FJPNX - Free Report) as a possibility. FJPNX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
FJPNX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Japan Fund made its debut in September of 1992 and FJPNX has managed to accumulate roughly $118.16 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Kirk Neureiter is the fund's current manager and has held that role since March of 2014.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. FJPNX has a 5-year annualized total return of 3% and is in the top 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 2.21%, 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. Over the past three years, FJPNX's standard deviation comes in at 16.6%, compared to the category average of 15.12%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 15.34% compared to the category average of 13.61%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 0.74, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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 negative alpha of -5.08. This means 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, FJPNX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.14% compared to the category average of 1.43%. So, FJPNX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $0; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Japan Fund ( FJPNX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Japan Fund ( FJPNX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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 FJPNX too 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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Is Fidelity Japan Fund (FJPNX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, consider Fidelity Japan Fund (FJPNX - Free Report) as a possibility. FJPNX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
FJPNX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. The Fidelity Japan Fund made its debut in September of 1992 and FJPNX has managed to accumulate roughly $118.16 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Kirk Neureiter is the fund's current manager and has held that role since March of 2014.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. FJPNX has a 5-year annualized total return of 3% and is in the top 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 2.21%, 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. Over the past three years, FJPNX's standard deviation comes in at 16.6%, compared to the category average of 15.12%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 15.34% compared to the category average of 13.61%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 0.74, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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 negative alpha of -5.08. This means 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, FJPNX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.14% compared to the category average of 1.43%. So, FJPNX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $0; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Japan Fund ( FJPNX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Japan Fund ( FJPNX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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 FJPNX too 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.