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

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If you have been looking for Sector - Precious Metal fund category, a potential starting could be Fidelity Advisor Gold A (FGDAX - Free Report) . FGDAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

We note that FGDAX is a Sector - Precious Metal option, and this area is loaded with different options. Sector - Precious Metal funds typically invest in companies that are involved in the mining and production of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Because stocks in this environment often trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity--they are tied to the prices of the metal--these equities tend to be volatile.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is responsible for FGDAX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Advisor Gold A debuted in December of 2006. Since then, FGDAX has accumulated assets of about $80.46 million, according to the most recently available information. Colin Anderson is the fund's current manager and has held that role since August of 2023.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 3.24%, and is in the bottom 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 -4.74%, which places it in the bottom 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. FGDAX's standard deviation over the past three years is 30.14% compared to the category average of 17.08%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 34.24% compared to the category average of 18.58%. 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 0.92, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. 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. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -5.84. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, FGDAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.06% compared to the category average of 1.04%. From a cost perspective, FGDAX is actually more expensive than its peers.

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, even with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, Fidelity Advisor Gold A ( FGDAX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on FGDAXin the Sector - Precious Metal 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 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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