How Has the Fidelity Select Retailing Portfolio Performed?

The Fidelity Select Retailing Portfolio (FSRPX) has outperformed both the S&P 500 (SPX) broad market index and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT), which can be considered a proxy for the US retail sector, on a YTD (year-to-date) basis. The fund has returned 8.26% compared to the S&P 500’s -4.77% and the XRT’s -4.89% since January 2015. The fund’s Sharpe ratio is 1.94, which means that it earns 1.94 units of excess return for every unit of total risk taken. The Sharpe ratio is a very important tool to gauge performances of mutual funds and is helpful when comparing different funds. The standard deviation of the fund has been on the higher side at 13.01.

The Fidelity Select Retailing Portfolio (FSRPX) is an open-ended mutual fund that has the majority of its investments in companies that are in the business of merchandising finished goods and services. The fund invests more than 80% in consumer discretionary companies, so it is a non-diversified fund that aims towards capital appreciation in investments.

The Fidelity Select Retailing Portfolio (FSRPX) has holdings in almost 50 stocks. Most of its holdings are in the consumer discretionary sector, but the rest are in consumer staples and information technology stocks. The top five holdings of this mutual fund as of July 31, 2015, are Home Depot (HD) with a 15.54% weight, Amazon (AMZN) with a 15.06% weight, Priceline (PCLN) with a 7.48% weight, TJX Companies (TJX) with a 5.36% weight, and L Brands (LB) with a 4.64% weight.