Fidelity Investments, founded in 1946 in Boston, MA, is one of the most trusted investment management companies in the world, with more than 40 million individual investors, who have entrusted their money to them. It held $11.3 trillion in assets under administration as of Mar 31, 2022, and employs more than 52,000 associates across nine other countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Fidelity sells its mutual fund products directly to its clients, which results in zero load charges and offers a large family of mutual funds with an expert fund management team in various asset classes to choose from based on individual risk appetite. Interestingly, some of the fidelity mutual funds gave a commendable performance in the first half when the broader stock market took a serious beating. The S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq all finished in the red in the first half as recession fears surfaced amid an inflationary environment that led to a hawkish Fed.
We have thus selected three such fidelity mutual funds that not only preserved investors’ wealth in the first half but also generated a spectacular return. These funds have the majority of their investments in sectors like Energy, Basic Materials, Natural Resources and Commodities, along with government debt instruments.
These funds boast a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or Rank 3 (Hold), have positive first-half, three-year, and five-year annualized returns, minimum initial investments within $5000, and carry a low expense ratio. Notably, mutual funds, in general, reduce transaction costs and diversify portfolios without an array of commission charges mostly associated with stock purchases (read more: Mutual Funds: Advantages, Disadvantages, and How They Make Investors Money).
Fidelity Advisor Energy Fund FANIX invests most of its net assets in common stocks of domestic and foreign companies that are principally engaged in the energy sector, including the conventional areas of oil, gas, electricity, coal and alternative sources of energy such as nuclear, geothermal, oil shale and solar power. FANIX advisors choose to invest in stocks based on fundamental analysis factors like financial condition and industry position, along with market and economic conditions.
Maurice FitzMaurice has been the lead manager of FANIX since Jan 1, 2020. Most of the fund’s exposure is in Exxon Mobil 20.48%, Chevron 7.93%, and ConocoPhillips 4.92% as of 4/30/2022.
FANIX’s first-half, three-year and five-year annualized returns are almost 33.3%, 10.9% and 6.3%, respectively. FANIX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 and an annual expense ratio of 0.76%, which is less than the category average of 1.07%.