Fidelity Contrafund Commingled Pool
QUARTERLY REVIEW | AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2023
Fidelity? Contrafund? Commingled Pool
Investment Approach
? Fidelity? Contrafund? Commingled Pool is an opportunistic, diversified equity strategy with a large-cap growth bias.
? Philosophically, we believe stock prices follow companies' earnings, and those companies that can deliver durable multiyear earnings growth provide attractive investment opportunities.
? As a result, our investment approach seeks companies we believe are poised for sustained, above-average earnings growth that is not accurately reflected in the stocks' current valuation.
? In particular, we emphasize companies with "best-of-breed" qualities, including those with a strong competitive position, high returns on capital, solid free cash flow generation and management teams that are stewards of shareholder capital.
? We strive to uncover these investment opportunities through in-depth bottom-up, fundamental analysis, working in concert with Fidelity's global research team.
PERFORMANCE SUMMARY
Cumulative
3 Month
YTD
1 Year
Annualized
3 Year
5 Year
10 Year/ LOP1
Fidelity Contrafund Commingled Pool - Class A Gross Expense Ratio: 0.43% 2
11.35% 37.47% 37.47%
7.66%
16.52% 12.95%
S&P 500 Index
11.69% 26.29% 26.29% 10.00% 15.69% 12.14%
1 Life of Pool (LOP) if performance is less than 10 years. Pool inception date: 01/17/2014. 2 This expense ratio is from the most recent annual report.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate; therefore, you may have a gain or loss when you sell your holdings. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance stated. To learn more or to obtain the most recent month-end performance visit or call your plan's toll free number. Cumulative total returns are reported as of the period indicated.
The Fidelity Contrafund Commingled Pool is a collective investment trust under the Fidelity Group Trust for Employee Benefit Plans and is managed by Fidelity Management Trust Company (FMTC). It is not a mutual fund. This information is only intended to provide a brief overview of this investment option, which is available only to certain qualified plans and is not offered to the general public. Investments in the pool are not guaranteed by the manager, the plan sponsor or insured by the FDIC.
For definitions and other important information, please see the Definitions and Important Information section of this Quarterly Review.
Manager: William Danoff
Start Date: January 17, 2014
Size (in millions): $46,369.33 The value of the fund's domestic and foreign investments will vary from day to day in response to many factors. Stock values may fluctuate in response to the activities of individual companies, and general market and economic conditions, and the value of an individual security or particular type of security can be more volatile than, or can perform differently from, the market as a whole. Investments in foreign securities involve greater risk than U.S. investments, including increased political and economic risk, as well as exposure to currency fluctuations. You may have a gain or loss when you sell your units.
Not FDIC Insured ? May Lose Value ? No Bank Guarantee
QUARTERLY REVIEW: Fidelity? Contrafund? Commingled Pool | AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2023
Performance Review
For the quarter, the pool gained 11.35%, versus 11.69% for the benchmark S&P 500? index. U.S. stocks rallied after the Federal Reserve signaled that disinflationary trends were sufficient to project a shift to monetary easing in 2024. This news, along with resilient late-cycle expansion of the U.S. economy and strong corporate earnings, provided a tailwind for higher-risk assets in Q4. Against this backdrop, we continued to focus on fast-growing, "best of breed" firms. For the year, the pool gained 37.47%, handily outpacing the 26.29% advance of the benchmark. Long-term comparisons remained favorable.
The Fed's historic interest-rate tightening campaign, launched in March 2022, continued until late July, when the central bank said it was too soon to tell if its latest hike would conclude a series of increases aimed at cooling the economy and inflation. At its next three meetings, the Fed held rates at a 22-year high while it continues to assess the lagged effects of monetary policy.
After the November 1 meeting, when the central bank hinted it might be done raising rates, the S&P 500? reversed a three-month decline that was due to soaring yields on longer-term government bonds and mixed earnings from some big and influential firms. Favorable data on inflation provided a further boost, and the index shook off a sluggish October (-2.10%) to gain 9.13% in November, as breadth improved. The momentum carried through December, as the index gained 4.54% for the month and 26.29% for the year.
For the fourth quarter, value (+13.63%) shares within the index topped growth (+10.09%), although the inverse was true more broadly. By sector within the S&P 500?, excitement about generative artificial intelligence was reflected in the 17% gain for information technology ? led by software and cloud-computing giant Microsoft (+19%), personal electronics maker Apple (+13%), and chipmakers Nvidia (+14%) and Broadcom (+35%) ? as well as communication services (+11%), with Facebook parent Meta Platforms (+18%) a standout. The rate-sensitive real estate (+19%) and financials (+14%) sectors outpaced the broader market, as did industrials (+13%) and consumer discretionary (+12%).
In contrast, energy returned -7% for the three months, hampered by a meaningful decline in the price of oil. Three defensive-oriented sectors fared much better but trailed the index: consumer staples (+6%), health care (+6%) and utilities (+9%). Stocks in the materials sector gained about 10% for the quarter.
Security selection in the media & entertainment industry within communication services was the top contributor to performance versus the benchmark in Q4, mostly reflecting a sizable overweight in Meta Platforms (+18%). In October, the parent of Facebook and Instagram reported its highest quarterly sales since going public in 2012, driven by its digital advertising business and advancements in AI. Revenue in Q3 grew by 23% and earnings per share rose 168%. Looking ahead, the company expects AI to be its biggest area of investment in 2024. Although Meta is categorized within media & entertainment, we see it as a leading, founder-led tech firm with a healthy operating margin and free cash flow. Also, we believe its roughly 3 billion daily active users will prove more valuable than the market realizes. We held steady the pool's commitment to Meta, our top holding and overweight as of year-end.
In consumer discretionary, it helped to hold only a negligible position in Tesla, a sizable benchmark component that lost modest ground, as we were worried that the maker of electric vehicles cut prices in the important Chinese market early in the year. The stock dipped in October, as financial results lagged the consensus expectation. Tesla was our No. 2 underweight on December 31.
Elsewhere in consumer discretionary, we benefited from an outsized stake in (+20%), as its shares rose after the company announced quarterly financial results in late October. Profit tripled in the third quarter, driven by strong sales in Amazon's cloudcomputing, advertising and retail units. Revenue increased by 13% for the quarter. We consider Amazon a well-run, founder-led firm, thus it ended the year as a top holding and overweight.
In contrast, our picks in financials notably hurt relative performance, especially a big overweight in Berkshire Hathaway (+2%), by far the largest individual detractor. In November, the insurance-focused conglomerate reported Q3 results that showed strong earnings from its wholly owned businesses, but a decline within its massive investment portfolio. A longtime holding led by founder Warren Buffett, Berkshire was our No. 2 holding and overweight as of the end of 2023.
An outsized investment in managed health care and insurance giant UnitedHealth Group (+5%) hurt. It was a sizable holding and overweight as of year-end, based on its track record of producing exceptional returns and free cash flow for the past two decades.
Lastly, we'll note that the pool's modest position in cash detracted from relative performance in such a strong market.
LARGEST CONTRIBUTORS VS. BENCHMARK
Holding
Market Segment
Average Relative Relative Contribution Weight (basis points)*
Meta Platforms, Inc. Class Communication
A
Services
9.05%
55
Tesla, Inc.
Consumer Discretionary
-1.69%
23
Netflix, Inc.
Communication Services
1.13%
17
, Inc.
Consumer Discretionary
1.71%
13
Pfizer, Inc.
Health Care
-0.46%
12
* 1 basis point = 0.01%.
LARGEST DETRACTORS VS. BENCHMARK
Holding
Market Segment
Average Relative Relative Contribution Weight (basis points)*
Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. Class A
Financials
6.43%
-64
UnitedHealth Group, Inc. Health Care
2.52%
-18
Broadcom, Inc.
Information Technology
-0.76%
-16
Franco-Nevada Corp.
Materials
0.41%
-13
Intel Corp.
Information Technology
-0.45%
-12
* 1 basis point = 0.01%.
2 | For definitions and other important information, please see Definitions and Important Information section of this Quarterly Review.
QUARTERLY REVIEW: Fidelity? Contrafund? Commingled Pool | AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2023
Outlook and Positioning
The U.S. stock market begins 2024 with favorable momentum amid easier financial conditions and a solid consumer backdrop, but upside surprises may be difficult due to low market volatility and higher valuations.
The U.S. economy remains in the late-cycle expansion phase. The global monetary tightening cycle appears to over, but the pace and magnitude of easing is uncertain. As of year-end, the forecast for 150 basis points of rate cuts in 2024 may be a challenge unless the economy slows more than expected.
Core inflation decelerated in Q4 and ended the year at 3.9%, higher than the Fed's target of 2%. A big drop in energy prices aided the disinflationary trend, but core inflation and other measures remained higher and stickier. U.S. consumers were supported by wage gains in 2023 amid tight labor and ebbing inflation. Households have enjoyed strong balance sheets due to high prices for housing and other assets.
Capital expenditures by businesses picked up as 2023 progressed, boosted by domestic manufacturing and AI. Corporate earnings remained on pace for slight contraction in 2023, but investors expect a double-digit rebound for earnings growth in 2024. After dropping from record-high levels, profit margins stabilized toward the end of the year.
With profit margins still at the upper end of their historical range and signs of diminishing pricing power, the ability of companies to maintain or expand earnings will be key to the outlook, in our view. Valuations became somewhat more expensive as stocks rallied in Q4, especially in the U.S. Based on our long-term valuation metrics, some assets appear relatively attractive even after the 2023 stock market rally.
In managing the pool since 2014, we have followed the investing tenet that a stock's price follows the actual and expected earnings per share of the underlying company over time. So, as the earnings outlook for the pool's holdings changed the past three months, we made only modest adjustments to the portfolio.
As the new year begins, the pool's position in communication services, which includes sizable commitments to Meta, Google parent Alphabet and video-streaming service provider Netflix, stood at about 19% and was the top sector overweight by a wide margin.
The pool's allocation to the financials sector was roughly 15%, a meaningful overweight and essentially unchanged from September 30. Noteworthy holdings from the sector include Berkshire Hathaway, credit-card processor Visa and banking firm JPMorgan Chase, which we notably added to the past three months.
Tech represented roughly 25% of assets at the end of the year, making it the largest sector allocation. Here and among several techrelated holdings elsewhere, the pool is positioned to capitalize on generative AI, led by sizable stakes in Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia. We like Microsoft for its embrace of generative AI, including the billions of dollars it has invested in OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT, as well as Microsoft's integration of AI software across its suite of business applications. Nvidia has benefited from the explosion in demand for its graphics processing units, which are used in data centers and to support the large language models needed to produce generative AI.
Historically, companies with higher-quality earnings and a larger market cap tend to outperform in a maturing cycle (late and recession), whereas smaller companies tend to fare better in the early-cycle phase. We believe the pool is well-positioned for this environment, based on its concentration in what we consider "best of breed" firms with a trustworthy and proven management team, a high free-cash-flow margin, and a decent growth outlook.
MARKET-SEGMENT DIVERSIFICATION
Market Segment Information Technology Communication Services Financials Health Care Consumer Discretionary Industrials Energy Consumer Staples Materials Utilities Real Estate Other
Index Pool Weight Weight
Relative Weight
Relative Change From Prior Quarter
25.41%
28.86% -3.45%
0.46%
18.56% 14.71% 12.48%
8.58% 12.97% 12.62%
9.98% 1.74% -0.14%
0.87% -0.35% 0.11%
10.02% 6.31% 3.97% 2.43% 2.39% 0.33% 0.00% 0.00%
10.85% 8.81% 3.89% 6.16% 2.41% 2.34% 2.52% 0.00%
-0.83% -2.50% 0.08% -3.73% -0.02% -2.01% -2.52% 0.00%
0.51% -0.40% 0.12% 0.26% -0.26% 0.03% -0.15% 0.00%
CHARACTERISTICS
Valuation Price/Earnings Trailing Price/Earnings (IBES 1-Year Forecast) Price/Book Price/Cash Flow Return on Equity (5-Year Trailing) Growth Sales/Share Growth 1-Year (Trailing) Earnings/Share Growth 1-Year (Trailing) Earnings/Share Growth 1-Year (IBES Forecast) Earnings/Share Growth 5-Year (Trailing) Size Weighted Average Market Cap ($ Billions) Weighted Median Market Cap ($ Billions) Median Market Cap ($ Billions)
Pool
22.5x 21.9x 4.7x 17.5x 18.3%
12.1% 32.5% 20.0% 22.8%
804.2 396.2 50.3
Index
22.9x 19.8x 4.5x 16.2x 18.1%
11.1% 0.6% 13.9% 19.1%
716.4 205.1 33.2
3 | For definitions and other important information, please see Definitions and Important Information section of this Quarterly Review.
QUARTERLY REVIEW: Fidelity? Contrafund? Commingled Pool | AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2023
LARGEST OVERWEIGHTS BY HOLDING
Holding
Market Segment
Meta Platforms, Inc. Class A Communication Services
Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. Class A
Financials
UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
Health Care
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Health Care
, Inc.
Consumer Discretionary
Relative Weight 9.26%
6.14% 2.41% 1.82% 1.76%
LARGEST UNDERWEIGHTS BY HOLDING
Holding Apple, Inc. Tesla, Inc. Johnson & Johnson Procter & Gamble Co. Broadcom, Inc.
Market Segment Information Technology Consumer Discretionary Health Care Consumer Staples Information Technology
Relative Weight
-2.59% -1.63% -0.92% -0.86% -0.84%
10 LARGEST HOLDINGS
Holding Meta Platforms, Inc. Class A Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. Class A Microsoft Corp. , Inc. Apple, Inc. NVIDIA Corp. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. Eli Lilly & Co. Alphabet, Inc. Class A Alphabet, Inc. Class C 10 Largest Holdings as a % of Net Assets Total Number of Holdings
Market Segment Communication Services Financials Information Technology Consumer Discretionary Information Technology Information Technology Health Care Health Care Communication Services Communication Services
50.90%
348
The 10 largest holdings are as of the end of the reporting period, and may not be representative of the pool's current or future investments. Holdings do not include money market investments.
ASSET ALLOCATION
Asset Class
Index Pool Weight Weight
Relative Weight
Relative Change From Prior Quarter
Domestic Equities
91.40%
99.36% -7.96%
1.99%
International Equities 5.22%
0.64%
4.58%
-0.75%
Developed Markets
4.27%
0.64%
3.63%
-0.86%
Emerging Markets 0.95%
0.00%
0.95%
0.11%
Tax-Advantaged Domiciles
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
Bonds
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
-0.01%
Cash & Net Other Assets
3.38%
0.00%
3.38%
-1.23%
Net Other Assets can include pool receivables, pool payables, and offsets to other derivative positions, as well as certain assets that do not fall into any of the pool composition categories. Depending on the extent to which the pool invests in derivatives and the number of positions that are held for future settlement, Net Other Assets can be a negative number.
3-YEAR RISK/RETURN STATISTICS
Beta Standard Deviation Sharpe Ratio Tracking Error Information Ratio R-Squared 3 years of data required.
Pool 1.00 18.21% 0.30 5.02% -0.47 0.92
Index 1.00 17.54% 0.44
----
4 | For definitions and other important information, please see Definitions and Important Information section of this Quarterly Review.
QUARTERLY REVIEW: Fidelity? Contrafund? Commingled Pool | AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2023
Definitions and Important Information
Information provided in, and presentation of, this document are for informational and educational purposes only and are not a recommendation to take any particular action, or any action at all, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Fidelity does not provide legal or tax advice.
Before making any investment decisions, you should consult with your own professional advisers and take into account all of the particular facts and circumstances of your individual situation. Fidelity and its representatives may have a conflict of interest in the products or services mentioned in these materials because they have a financial interest in them, and receive compensation, directly or indirectly, in connection with the management, distribution, and/or servicing of these products or services, including Fidelity funds, certain third-party funds and products, and certain investment services.
CHARACTERISTICS Earnings-Per-Share Growth Trailing measures the growth in reported earnings per share over trailing one- and five-year periods.
Earnings-Per-Share Growth (IBES 1-Year Forecast) measures the growth in reported earnings per share as estimated by Wall Street analysts.
Median Market Cap identifies the median market capitalization of the pool or benchmark as determined by the underlying security market caps.
Price-to-Book (P/B) Ratio is the ratio of a company's current share price to reported accumulated profits and capital.
Price/Cash Flow is the ratio of a company's current share price to its trailing 12-months cash flow per share.
Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio (IBES 1-Year Forecast) is the ratio of a company's current share price to Wall Street analysts' estimates of earnings.
Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio Trailing is the ratio of a company's current share price to its trailing 12-months earnings per share.
Return on Equity (ROE) 5-Year Trailing is the ratio of a company's last five years historical profitability to its shareholders' equity. Preferred stock is included as part of each company's net worth.
Sales-Per-Share Growth measures the growth in reported sales over the specified past time period.
Weighted Average Market Cap identifies the market capitalization of the average equity holding as determined by the dollars invested in the pool or benchmark.
Weighted Median Market Cap identifies the market capitalization of the median equity holding as determined by the dollars invested in the pool or benchmark.
IMPORTANT POOL INFORMATION
Relative positioning data presented in this commentary is based on the pool's primary benchmark (index) unless a secondary benchmark is provided to assess performance.
INDICES It is not possible to invest directly in an index. All indices represented are unmanaged. All indices include reinvestment of dividends and interest income unless otherwise noted.
S&P 500 Index is a market capitalization-weighted index of 500 common stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation to represent U.S. equity performance.
MARKET-SEGMENT WEIGHTS Market-segment weights illustrate examples of sectors or industries in which the pool may invest, and may not be representative of the pool's current or future investments. They should not be construed or used as a recommendation for any sector or industry.
RELATIVE WEIGHTS Relative weights represents the % of pool assets in a particular market segment, asset class or credit quality relative to the benchmark. A positive number represents an overweight, and a negative number is an underweight. The pool's benchmark is listed immediately under the pool name in the Performance Summary.
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