Fidelity Select Pharmaceutical Mutual Fund Offers Diversified Drug Play

by Cynthia Wilson | June 16, 2011 4:38 am

The Fidelity Select Pharmaceutical Portfolio (MUTF: FPHAX[1]) is what the name implies, a mutual fund made up of companies that specialize in the research, manufacture, sale or distribution of pharmaceuticals and drugs of all types.

Big pharma plays a big role in modern medicine, and despite trouble with generic competition and patent expiration there is still a lot of profit potential for the drug industry. The Fidelity Select Pharmaceutical fund offers investors a diversified play on the pharmaceutical sector to make a focused investment in the sector, while still diversifying.

Here are the specifics for the Fidelity Select Pharmaceutical Portfolio for today’s mutual fund spotlight:

Investing Strategy: The fund invests mostly in U.S. companies but will invest in foreign issuers. Nearly 99% of the fund’s assets are in common stocks, with the remainder in cash.

Expense Ratio: With a .94% expense ratio and no transaction fee, the Fidelity Select Pharmaceutical Portfolio is low to moderately priced, when compared with other funds in the category and it enjoys a Morningstar rating of four stars.

Top 5 Holdings: The top five stocks in the Fidelity Select Pharmaceutical Portfolio include Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE[2]) at 7.98%, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX[3]) at 6.85%, Merck & Co, Inc. (NYSE: MRK[4]) at 5.97%, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ[5]) at 4.55%, and Novo Nordisk A/S ADR (NYSE: NVO[6]) at 4.27%.

Returns: The fund’s 12-month return of 27.3% outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s return of 17% return during the period and the S&P 500s return of 16.4%. And its 5-year return of 35.9%, was significantly better than the Dow’s 9.7% return and the S&P 500’s return of 1.5%.

Other Fund Statistics

Total Assets: $558.8 million (as of 6/10/11)

Minimum Investment: $2,500 ($500 for IRA)

Fund manager: Andrew Oh

Manager’s Tenure: Since July 2006

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2011/06/fidelity-select-pharmaceutical-fund-fphax-pfe-mrk-jnj/

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