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Is Fidelity Focused Stock Fund (FTQGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

Looking for a Large Cap Growth fund? You may want to consider Fidelity Focused Stock Fund (FTQGX) as a possible option. FTQGX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

FTQGX is classified in the Large Cap Growth segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their stock market valuation is more than $10 billion. Large Cap Growth mutual funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers.

History of Fund/Manager

Fidelity is responsible for FTQGX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Fidelity Focused Stock Fund debuted in November of 1996. Since then, FTQGX has accumulated assets of about $2.72 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Stephen DuFour who has been in charge of the fund since March of 2007.

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 11.03%, and it sits in the middle 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 16.87%, 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. FTQGX's standard deviation over the past three years is 13.71% compared to the category average of 12.71%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 13.3% compared to the category average of 12.87%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment. In the most recent bear market, FTQGX lost 45.71% and outperformed its peer group by 3.14%. This means that the fund could possibly be a better choice than its peers during a down market environment.

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. FTQGX has a 5-year beta of 1.02, which means it 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. With a positive alpha of 1.27, managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Examining the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is primarily on equities that are traded in the United States.

The mutual fund currently has 85.09% of its holdings in stocks, with an average market capitalization of $181.45 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology

  2. Finance

This fund's turnover is about 138%, so the fund managers are making more trades per year than the comparable average.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, FTQGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.81% compared to the category average of 1.06%. So, FTQGX 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 Focused Stock Fund ( FTQGX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees compared to its peers.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Large Cap Growth, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.


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