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Is Fidelity Advisor Gold A (FGDAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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Having trouble finding a Sector - Precious Metal fund? Fidelity Advisor Gold A (FGDAX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. FGDAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FGDAX is classified in the Sector - Precious Metal segment by Zacks, an area full of potential. Sector - Precious Metal mutual funds normally invest in stocks focused on the mining and production of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Often times, stocks here trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity, so they are tied to the prices of the metal, and can be quite volatile, too.
History of Fund/Manager
Fidelity is responsible for FGDAX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Advisor Gold A made its debut in December of 2006, and since then, FGDAX has accumulated about $153.70 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, Ryan Oldham, has been in charge of the fund since November of 2024.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 6.53%, and it sits in the bottom 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 22.86%, 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. Compared to the category average of 16.62%, the standard deviation of FGDAX over the past three years is 28.47%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 29.57% compared to the category average of 16.17%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FGDAX has a 5-year beta of 0.53, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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. FGDAX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 0.36, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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 0.97% compared to the category average of 1.04%. So, FGDAX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
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 Line
Overall, even with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Advisor Gold A ( FGDAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a great potential choice for investors right now.
Don't stop here for your research on Sector - Precious Metal funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare FGDAX to its peers 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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Is Fidelity Advisor Gold A (FGDAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Having trouble finding a Sector - Precious Metal fund? Fidelity Advisor Gold A (FGDAX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. FGDAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FGDAX is classified in the Sector - Precious Metal segment by Zacks, an area full of potential. Sector - Precious Metal mutual funds normally invest in stocks focused on the mining and production of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Often times, stocks here trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity, so they are tied to the prices of the metal, and can be quite volatile, too.
History of Fund/Manager
Fidelity is responsible for FGDAX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Advisor Gold A made its debut in December of 2006, and since then, FGDAX has accumulated about $153.70 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, Ryan Oldham, has been in charge of the fund since November of 2024.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 6.53%, and it sits in the bottom 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 22.86%, 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. Compared to the category average of 16.62%, the standard deviation of FGDAX over the past three years is 28.47%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 29.57% compared to the category average of 16.17%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FGDAX has a 5-year beta of 0.53, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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. FGDAX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 0.36, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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 0.97% compared to the category average of 1.04%. So, FGDAX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
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 Line
Overall, even with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Fidelity Advisor Gold A ( FGDAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a great potential choice for investors right now.
Don't stop here for your research on Sector - Precious Metal funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare FGDAX to its peers 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.