ETF Evaluator: Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF () Follow This ETF

Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF Overview

Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF (FSTB) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Short-Term Bond exchange-traded fund (ETF). Fidelity Investments launched the ETF in 2026.

The investment seeks to obtain a high level of current income consistent with preservation of capital. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in investment-grade debt securities (those of medium and high quality) of all types and repurchase agreements for those securities. Its manager manages the fund to have similar overall interest rate risk to the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. 1-3 Year Government/Credit Bond Index. The fund normally maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity of three years or less. It allocates assets across different market sectors and maturities. The fund invests in domestic and foreign issuers.

About Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF (FSTB)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 9.22 years: Robert Galusza (2007), David DeBiase (2019) and John Mistovich (2024). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg US Govt/Credit 1-3 Yr TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF has 486 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 44.9% of the ETF’s assets. The ETF meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The ETF is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond ETF group. Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF has 19.3% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0% There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 99.1% (79.8% domestic bond, 19.3% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF has 0.3% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $173 million in total assets, which is below the $3 billion average for the Short-Term Bond category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

FSTB Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Short-Term Bond category. Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF has an expense ratio of 0.20%, which is 29% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 59%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 77% for the Short-Term Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF returned 0.0%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Short-Term Bond category had an average return of -0.1%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all ETFs in that category.

Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF has a trailing yield of 0.00%, which is below the 4.54% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Fidelity Short-Term Bond Fund ETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 0.8%, 0.2 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 3.1% over the past year (grade of F), 4.7% over the past three years (grade of F) and 2.3% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 2.1% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

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