Fidelity, MFS Funds Lead the Pack

As the Olympics begin in China, our quarterly "ultra" fund family competition has drawn to a close. Here are the second quarter medal-count results for the 425 fund families we track.

In the first of two events in this challenge, investment management firms aim for "ultra" fund family glory by placing as many funds as possible on our quarterly top-200 list of open-end funds. This list is being published in section III of our Summer 2008 edition of TheStreet.com Ratings Guide to Stock Mutual Funds.

For the fourth quarter in a row, the same two families finished atop the pack with the most mutual funds in the top 200. Fidelity added another nine funds to the list over last quarter, for a total of 27 gold medal spots -- one medal for each fund on top-200 list. Vanguard came back with 10 gold medals. This effort was equaled by American Century Investments, with 10 funds on the top-200 list.

The fourth and fifth spots repeat from the first quarter. ING Investments, a unit of ING Groep(ING Quote) is awarded eight silver medals, and Ivy/Waddell & Reed(WDR Quote) wins seven 'ultra' fund family silver medals.

Six bronze 'ultra' fund family medals go to GE Investment (a unit of General Electric(GE Quote)), BlackRock and Eaton Vance(EV Quote).

BlackRock is 49%-owned by Merrill Lynch(MER Quote), 34%-owned by PNC Financial Services Group(PNC Quote), and 17%-owned by BlackRock (BLK Quote) employees and shareholders.

In the second event for our fund families, we break them into groups by size to see which firms have the highest percentage of funds ranked in the top 30% of all open-end funds in comparison to other fund families of similar size. The top 30% represents overall investment grades of A+ down to B-. The middle 40% are fund grades of C+, C, and C-, with D+ and lower in the bottom 30%.

Moving up from second to first place this quarter, MFS beat all others, with 55.3% of its funds in the top 30% of all open-end stock mutual funds we rate. T. Rowe Price(TROW Quote) followed with 50.8% climbing up two spots on the large fund family list.

Two other big fund families had 50% of their funds outperform the lower 70% of funds on a risk-adjusted return basis. Ivy/Waddell & Reed moved up to third place from fifth and American Century Investments took fourth ascending four notches.

Fund Families With 100 or More Rated Funds
Fund Family Name	No. of Funds Rated	Top 30%	Middle 40%	Bottom 30%
MFS	262	55.3%	33.6%	11.1%
T. Rowe Price	118	50.8%	39.8%	9.3%
Ivy/Waddell & Reed Funds	136	50.0%	27.2%	22.8%
American Century Investments	170	50.0%	21.8%	28.2%
Hartford Funds, The	260	46.5%	39.2%	14.2%
American Funds	211	45.5%	41.7%	12.8%
BlackRock	218	45.0%	29.4%	25.7%
Nationwide Funds	201	44.3%	22.4%	33.3%
Vanguard	136	44.1%	37.5%	18.4%
Alliance Bernstein	369	42.5%	36.0%	21.4%
Fidelity Investments	638	42.5%	29.6%	27.9%
Allianz Global Investors Fund Manag	127	35.4%	45.7%	18.9%
Wells Fargo Advantage Funds	221	33.5%	35.7%	30.8%
JPMorgan Funds	237	33.3%	38.4%	28.3%
Columbia Funds	495	33.1%	52.5%	14.3%
Russell Funds	102	32.4%	45.1%	22.5%
AIM Investments	180	31.7%	42.8%	25.6%
JennisonDryden/Prudential/Strategic Partners	144	30.6%	45.1%	24.3%
Goldman Sachs	134	29.9%	41.0%	29.1%
Franklin Templeton	192	28.1%	40.1%	31.8%
MainStay Funds	122	27.0%	44.3%	28.7%
Morgan Stanley	174	26.4%	31.6%	42.0%
ING Investments, LLC	333	26.4%	45.3%	28.2%
OppenheimerFunds	220	25.9%	47.3%	26.8%
Van Kampen	151	25.2%	53.0%	21.9%
Principal Financial Group	416	22.8%	42.5%	34.6%
RiverSource Investments	150	22.0%	48.0%	30.0%
DWS Scudder	182	21.4%	40.7%	37.9%
Dreyfus/Mellon Funds	244	19.7%	45.5%	34.8%
Putnam Funds	559	18.1%	54.4%	27.5%
John Hancock	100	18.0%	24.0%	58.0%
Pioneer Investments	103	17.5%	49.5%	33.0%
Rydex Funds	147	13.6%	28.6%	57.8%
Legg Mason	102	10.8%	43.1%	46.1%
MassMutual Funds	166	7.2%	63.9%	28.9%
Source: TheStreet.com Ratings

The best performing fund family in the 40 to 99 rated fund group, with 51.8% of its 85 funds ranking in the top 30%, is Eaton Vance. This fund family moved up from second place unseating Janus Funds. Royce Funds and GE Investment(GE Quote) hold second and third position.

The 10 Best Fund Families With 40 to 99 Rated Funds
Fund Family Name	No. of Funds Rated	Top 30%	Middle 40%	Bottom 30%
Eaton Vance	85	51.8%	36.5%	11.8%
Royce Funds	48	45.8%	35.4%	18.8%
GE Investment	49	44.9%	44.9%	10.2%
PIMCO Funds	85	42.4%	16.5%	41.2%
State Farm	72	41.7%	36.1%	22.2%
GMO Funds	47	38.3%	36.2%	25.5%
Natixis Funds	43	37.2%	23.3%	39.5%
Pacific Life Funds	50	36.0%	40.0%	24.0%
Janus Fund	98	35.7%	41.8%	22.4%
Seligman Group	80	35.0%	36.3%	28.8%
Source: TheStreet.com Ratings

HSBC Asset Management(HBC Quote) and First Eagle swapped first and second place this quarter among the smaller fund families. First Eagle did slightly better at 80.0% of funds in the top 30% compared to 69.4% for HSBC.

The 10 Best Fund Families With 10 to 39 Rated Funds
Fund Family Name	No. of Funds Rated	Top 30%	Middle 40%	Bottom 30%
First Eagle	15	80.0%	20.0%	0.0%
HSBC Asset Mgmt	36	69.4%	19.4%	11.1%
Neuberger Berman	35	60.0%	22.9%	17.1%
Victory Funds	22	59.1%	36.4%	4.5%
Touchstone Funds	20	55.0%	20.0%	25.0%
Barclay's Global	11	54.5%	45.5%	0.0%
Henderson Global Funds	12	50.0%	25.0%	25.0%
Harbor Funds	24	50.0%	12.5%	37.5%
Vantagepoint Funds	27	48.1%	48.1%	3.7%
Sentinel Group	21	47.6%	52.4%	0.0%
Source: TheStreet.com Ratings

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