Fund Evaluator:

Fidelity Balanced Overview

Fidelity Balanced (FBALX) is an actively managed Allocation Moderate Allocation fund. Fidelity Investments launched the fund in 1986.

The investment seeks both income and capital growth. The fund invests approximately 60% of assets in stocks and other equity securities and the remainder in bonds and other debt securities, including lower-quality debt securities (those of less than investment-grade quality, also referred to as high yield debt securities or junk bonds), when its outlook is neutral. It invests at least 25% of total assets in fixed-income senior securities.

About Fidelity Balanced (FBALX)

There are 11 members of the management team with an average tenure of 4.74 years: Christopher Lee (2022), Laurie Mundt (2024), Christopher Lin (2024), Chad Colman (2022), Matt Reed (2025), Ashley Fernandes (2020), Pranay Kirpalani (2024), Priyanshu Bakshi (2022), Samuel Wald (2025), Nicola Stafford (2017), Steven Kaye (2008). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 3 primary benchmarks: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100%, Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 40% and S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 60%. Fidelity Balanced has 4897 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 27.7% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Fidelity Balanced is part of the Allocation global asset class and is within the Allocation fund group. Fidelity Balanced has 4.9% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 61.4%. There is 3.9% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 34.6% (33.7% domestic bond, 0.9% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Fidelity Balanced has -0.6% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $46 billion in total assets, which is above the $2 billion average for the Moderate Allocation 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.

FBALX 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 Balanced expense ratio is average compared to funds in the Moderate Allocation category. Fidelity Balanced has an expense ratio of 0.46%, which is 54% 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 Balanced has a portfolio turnover rate of 41%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 52% for the Moderate Allocation category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Fidelity Balanced returned 0.5%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Moderate Allocation 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 funds in that category.

Fidelity Balanced has a trailing yield of 1.55%, which is below the 1.97% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly.

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 Balanced Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 10.5%, 3.7 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 20.8% over the past year (grade of A), 16.4% over the past three years (grade of A) and 9.3% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 12.0% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

For more mutual fund grades, analysis and screening tools to help your investment discovery, join AAII for a $2, full-access trial. Learn more here: https://invest.aaii.com/membership.

Otherwise, for more information about Fidelity Balanced, including its riskiness, submit your email to unlock the rest of the article.