Magellan's Underperformance Costs Fidelity Millions in Fees

Due to poor performance in Fidelity's flagship fund, Magellan, the management fees that Fidelity has collected in the most recent six months totaled $104.3 million, a 27% decrease from the $143.3 million in the same period a year earlier, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The poor performance has caused assets to grow at a slow rate, and has prompted many investors to redeem shares. As of Sept.30, Magellan had $52.5 billion in assets, down from $61.5 billion the year before.

On top of this, because Magellan's fees are tied to performance relative to the S&P 500, that lowered them by $53 million, according to the fund's most recent shareholder report. Had the fund returned better than 5.12% during the six-month period, Fidelity would have earned $157.3 million in management fees.

But Fidelity is not throwing in the towel. Last month, Harry Lange was named Magellan's new boss, replacing Robert Stansky. Lange has said he is looking for companies that are growing more rapidly than their peers, or more rapidly than their industries.

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.