Low-Fidelity: Weak Results in ‘08

Fidelity Investments is having one of its weakest first five months in recent history. Only 39% of Fidelity’s equity funds are in the company of the top half of their peers, whereas 64% were a year ago, according to Morningstar, The Wall Street Journal reports.

While it is true that many fund companies have taken a slight beating in the past few months, other large fund companies are still performing relatively well.  For example, at American Funds, 75% are in the top half of their peer groups, and at Vanguard Group, 63% are in the top half as well.

“The reason they looked so good last year is the same reason that this year they don’t – Fidelity leans toward growth,” said Christopher Davis, a Morningstar analyst.

A winning strategy from 2007 does not guarantee success in 2008, especially with the recent market turmoil.

Walter Donovan, president of Fidelity’s equity division, said that five months is much too short a time to judge performance and stressed that a much “fairer” picture is a 12 month stretch through May 31. In that time frame, Fidelity equity funds beat about 65% of their peers. “We would say those are better measurements,” Donovan said.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

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