Fidelity Said to be Looking for New CIO

Even though Fidelity’s mutual funds are performing strongly, with 62% in the top half of their category, the firm is looking for a new chief investment officer, Reuters reports. By comparison, in 2008, only 36% of the firm’s funds were in the top half.

Since March, Fidelity has named new equity and fixed income leaders, and since naming a new president in 2007, the firm has replaced a number of leading executives and hired a number of stock analysts.

Last year, certainly, the funds did not perform well. The flagship Magellan fund was down nearly 50%, but so far this year, it has returned 10%, 5.1 percentage points better than its category average.

Magellan Portfolio Manager Harry Lange explained, “The companies I believed in, I just kept buying them on the way down, the ones that had cash and were market leaders. It was a gut-wrenching time last year, and I’ve been in the industry long enough to know that a time when I have to step up, when things look the worst.”