Fidelity Tops List of 'Ultra' Mutual Funds

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Fidelity Investments represented 29 spots on TheStreet.com's Top 200 Stock Mutual Funds list in the fourth quarter, winning the 10th consecutive "Ultra" Fund Family title.

Fidelity, which has 820 mutual funds that carry ratings, beat out 411 other fund companies. Fidelity had 28 of its 620 rated mutual funds in the previous Top 200 ranking.

Vanguard retained second place with nine funds on our Top 200 list, which compiles A and A-plus rated mutual funds. Grey House Publishing published the results in TheStreet.com's Winter 2009-2010 Guide to Stock Mutual Funds.

Tied for third place are Alliance Bernstein, a unit of Axa SA(AXA) and John Hancock, a division of Manulife Financial(MFC). Transamerica Funds, a subsidiary of Aegon NV(AEG) slipped to fourth place.

To level the playing field among 33 massive, 35 big, 66 medium and 278 small fund families, we review each of the 412 fund families against peers of similar size.

For a company to be considered an "Ultra" Fund Family, it needs to have the highest percentage of funds ranked in the top 30%. The top 30% represents investment grades of A-plus to B-minus. The middle 40% are fund grades of C-plus, C and C-minus, with D-plus and lower in the bottom 30%.

Van Kampen, a unit of Morgan Stanley(MS), won the top spot for fund families with 100 or more rated funds for the third consecutive quarter. Van Kampen has 52% of its funds rated "buy."

MFS, a division of Sun Life Financial(SLF), takes second place with 42% of its funds ranked in the top 30%. Lord Abbett is third with 41%.