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Is Fidelity Select Health Care Services (FSHCX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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On the lookout for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? Starting with Fidelity Select Health Care Services (FSHCX - Free Report) is one possibility. FSHCX 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

FSHCX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Select Health Care Services debuted in June of 1986. Since then, FSHCX has accumulated assets of about $1.83 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Justin Segalini who has been in charge of the fund since January of 2016.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 13.72%, 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 12.82%, 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, FSHCX's standard deviation comes in at 19.63%, compared to the category average of 19.28%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 20.4% compared to the category average of 18.96%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.78, which means it is hypothetically less 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. FSHCX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 6.49, demonstrating 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, FSHCX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.71% compared to the category average of 1.29%. So, FSHCX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

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 Select Health Care Services ( FSHCX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on FSHCXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike.


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