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Money Management Executive

Putnam Tops List of Funds Losing Cash in April

May 29, 2003, 1:00 a.m. EDT 1 Min Read

Putnam Investments is estimated to have seen $642 million of cash pulled from its stock and bond mutual funds in April, the biggest cash outflow of the top 25 U.S. fund firms of that month, Reuters reports.

Financial Research Corp., the financial service consulting firm, estimated Putnam, the fifth-biggest fund firm in the U.S., had a $1.25 billion withdrawal in March, and year-to-date outflows of $4.68 billion, topping the biggest 25 U.S. fund firms.

Putnam’s outflows contradict the recent trend of cash inflows into U.S. stock mutual funds, triggered by this spring’s stock market gains. Overall, stock mutual funds took in an estimated $14 billion in net new money in April, according to separate data from fund tracker Lipper.

Many investors are shunning Putnam because some of its most aggressive stock funds have stumbled badly during the three-year stock slump, said Laura Pavlenko Lutton, an analyst at research firm Morningstar. "A lot of investors are still looking at the mistakes in a few funds and applying that to the whole firm," she said.

Putnam’s flagship Voyager fund was down an average 16.98% in the past three years, falling into the bottom half of its large-company growth peers.

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