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Is FFRHX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Any investors hoping to find a Mutual Fund Bond fund could think about starting with Fidelity Floating Rate High Income (FFRHX - Free Report) . FFRHX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

FFRHX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Floating Rate High Income debuted in August of 2000. Since then, FFRHX has accumulated assets of about $6.30 billion, according to the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. FFRHX has a 5-year annualized total return of 3.23% and it sits 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 2.56%, 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 FFRHX over the past three years is 8.31% compared to the category average of 15.62%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 6.75% compared to the category average of 13.55%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of -0.27, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, FFRHX has a positive alpha of 2.39, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

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, FFRHX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.68% compared to the category average of 0.98%. FFRHX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

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

Bottom Line

Overall, Fidelity Floating Rate High Income ( FFRHX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Mutual Fund Bond 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 FFRHX too 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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