Is Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

Have you been searching for a Sector - Precious Metal fund? You might want to begin with Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX). FSAGX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.ObjectiveThe world of Sector - Precious Metal funds is an area filled with options, such as FSAGX. Usually, Sector - Precious Metal mutual funds invest in stocks with a focus on the mining and production of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Here, stocks often trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity, meaning they're tied to the metal's prices and can be volatile.History of Fund/ManagerFSAGX finds itself in the Fidelity family, based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio debuted in December of 1985. Since then, FSAGX has accumulated assets of about $3.63 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Boris Shepov who has been in charge of the fund since December of 2024.PerformanceInvestors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 19.04%, 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 36.68%, 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. The standard deviation of FSAGX over the past three years is 34.24% compared to the category average of 14.76%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 33.99% compared to the category average of 16.24%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.Risk FactorsInvestors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FSAGX has a 5-year beta of 0.6, which means it is likely to be less volatile than 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 14.08, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.ExpensesFor 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, FSAGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.66% compared to the category average of 1.01%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, FSAGX is actually cheaper than its peers.This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into consideration. Returns would be less if those were included.Bottom LineOverall, even with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio ( FSAGX ) 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 FSAGX in 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. 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.Beyond Nvidia: AI's Second Wave Is HereThe AI revolution has already minted millionaires. But the stocks everyone knows about aren't likely to keep delivering the biggest profits. AI’s second wave is moving from infrastructure to implementation and these companies are at the forefront of this transition, positioned to become what Amazon and Google were to the internet era.See Stocks Now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks