Fund Evaluator:

Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace Overview

Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace (FSDAX) is an actively managed Sector Equity Industrials fund. Fidelity Investments launched the fund in 1984.

The investment seeks capital appreciation. The fund invests primarily in common stocks. It invests at least 80% of assets in securities of companies principally engaged in the research, manufacture, or sale of products or services related to the defense or aerospace industries. The fund invests in domestic and foreign issuers. It uses fundamental analysis of factors such as each issuer's financial condition and industry position, as well as market and economic conditions to select investments. The fund is non-diversified.

About Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace (FSDAX)

There are 1 members of the management team with an average tenure of 0.72 years: Todd Haggerty (2025). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100% and MSCI US IMI/Aero&Defense 25-50 GR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace has 32 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 73.8% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a nondiversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Sector Equity fund group. Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace has 5.4% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 94.1%. There is 5.4% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace has 0.5% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $3 billion in total assets, which is above the $493 million average for the Industrials 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.

FSDAX 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 Select Defense & Aerospace expense ratio is above average compared to funds in the Industrials category. Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace has an expense ratio of 0.63%, which is 36% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. 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 Select Defense & Aerospace has a portfolio turnover rate of 18%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 110% for the Industrials category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace returned 4.6%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Industrials category had an average return of 4.8%. 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 funds in that category.

Fidelity Select Defense & Aerospace has a trailing yield of 0.00%, which is below the 0.16% category average. The fund normally distributes its income semi-annually and its capital gains semi-annually.

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 Select Defense & Aerospace Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 14.9%, 4.0 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 29.8% over the past year (grade of D), 30.0% over the past three years (grade of A) and 18.4% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 16.3% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

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