Fidelity's Magellan Gains on Tech Bets
TSC Ratings provides exclusive stock, ETF and mutual fund ratings and commentary based on award-winning, proprietary tools. Its "safety first" approach to investing aims to reduce risk while seeking solid outperformance on a total return basis.
Fidelity Investments' Magellan Fund
(FMAGX) - Get Report
is riding the success of tech superstars
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
and
(GOOG) - Get Report
this year, returning 7.3% as the
drops.
So far this year, Magellan has generated the second-best performance among the 50 largest stock
that are actively managed. Almost 35% of the fund is invested in technology and communications companies.
Apple and Google have brought big windfalls to Magellan this year, gaining 47% and 27%, respectively.
Cisco Systems
(CSCO) - Get Report
and
Oracle
(ORCL) - Get Report
also have jumped more than 10%. All four companies were among the fund's top 20 holdings at the end of March.
The
Van Kampen Capital Growth Fund
(ACPAX)
was the group's best performer, returning 18% as the
S&P 500
index fell 4.5%. Van Kampen managers also bet on tech stocks, including
Baidu
(BIDU) - Get Report
and
Amazon.com
(AMZN) - Get Report
, which have jumped more than 50% this year.
There were several losers among these funds, which each have at least $10 billion in assets. Financial stocks were largely to blame.
The
Harbor International Fund
(HAINX) - Get Report
has lost 8% this year. The fund has 27% of its assets in finance companies, such as
AXA
(AXA)
,
Lloyds Banking Group
(LYG) - Get Report
and
Sumitomo Trust & Banking
. These stocks have dropped more than 20% each.
Closer to home, the
American Washington Mutual Investors Fund
(AWSHX) - Get Report
shed 7.9%. The fund suffered as
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
,
Fifth Third Bancorp
(FITB) - Get Report
and
SunTrust Banks
(STI) - Get Report
have lost about half their value.
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
, another holding, is down 38%.
Kevin Baker became the senior financial analyst for TSC Ratings upon the August 2006 acquisition of Weiss Ratings by TheStreet.com, covering mutual funds. He joined the Weiss Group in 1997 as a banking and brokerage analyst. In 1999, he created the Weiss Group's first ratings to gauge the level of risk in U.S. equities. Baker received a B.S. degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. with a finance specialization from Nova Southeastern University.
