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Is Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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Having trouble finding a Large Cap Growth fund? Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. FCNTX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FCNTX is part of the Large Cap Growth section, and this segment boasts an array of other possible options. Large Cap Growth mutual funds purchase stakes in numerous large U.S. companies that are expected to develop and grow at a faster rate than other large-cap stocks. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their market capitalization is over $10 billion.
History of Fund/Manager
FCNTX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Contrafund made its debut in May of 1967, FCNTX has garnered more than $131.43 billion in assets. Will Danoff is the fund's current manager and has held that role since September of 1990.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. FCNTX has a 5-year annualized total return of 17.4% and it sits in the top third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 10.93%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.
It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.
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. Compared to the category average of 17.79%, the standard deviation of FCNTX over the past three years is 19.22%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 19.01% compared to the category average of 18.06%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 1, the fund is likely to be as volatile as the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 2.26, which shows 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, FCNTX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.42% compared to the category average of 0.94%. FCNTX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $0; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Contrafund ( FCNTX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Contrafund ( FCNTX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Large 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 FCNTX 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 Contrafund (FCNTX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Having trouble finding a Large Cap Growth fund? Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. FCNTX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FCNTX is part of the Large Cap Growth section, and this segment boasts an array of other possible options. Large Cap Growth mutual funds purchase stakes in numerous large U.S. companies that are expected to develop and grow at a faster rate than other large-cap stocks. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their market capitalization is over $10 billion.
History of Fund/Manager
FCNTX is a part of the Fidelity family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. Since Fidelity Contrafund made its debut in May of 1967, FCNTX has garnered more than $131.43 billion in assets. Will Danoff is the fund's current manager and has held that role since September of 1990.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. FCNTX has a 5-year annualized total return of 17.4% and it sits in the top third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 10.93%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.
It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.
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. Compared to the category average of 17.79%, the standard deviation of FCNTX over the past three years is 19.22%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 19.01% compared to the category average of 18.06%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 1, the fund is likely to be as volatile as the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 2.26, which shows 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, FCNTX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.42% compared to the category average of 0.94%. FCNTX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $0; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, Fidelity Contrafund ( FCNTX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Contrafund ( FCNTX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Large 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 FCNTX 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.