Special Program Root Tag

On Wall Street, they say, a hold is as good as a buy, and in the coming weeks a Supreme Court judge might decide whether that's a fact of law, too.

NEW YORK - Call it growing pains. As much as hedge funds have impacted the investment community in recent years, the increased interest in, and significant inflows to, hedge funds from institutional investors have changed the way the $1.1 trillion industry operates.

Pioneer Investments of Boston is acquiring yet another asset management firm. But this time, rather than purchasing another mutual fund company or fund family, Pioneer will acquire Vanderbilt Capital Advisors of New York, an investment firm that specializes in separately managed fixed-income strategies and structured finance products.

T. Rowe Price took in record revenue of $429 million in the first quarter, earning a net income of $116.7 million, up 24% from $94 million in the first quarter of 2005. Earnings per share were 84 cents, up nearly 22% from earnings of 69 cents a share in the year-earlier period.

Janus Capital continues to reap the benefit of its Intech unit, as the quantitative investment group attracted $4 billion in new money in the first quarter, bringing Intech's total assets to $50 billion.

At the request of investors, fund companies are increasing the equity exposure in their target-date, or lifecycle, funds, Fidelity and Vanguard being two of the biggest firms to do so recently.

Nuveen Hires Richter for Chief Administrative Post

When Neil Hennessy launched the Hennessy Funds 10 years ago, he knew that to stack up against the 8,000 competitors already in the game, he'd need to come up with a unique investment story.

Mutual fund and other asset management firms need to do a better job of analyzing the profitability of products, channels, clients and back-office systems to improve operating margins, according to a report from Capco Institute of New York. Although assets under management have increased for many firms and average operating margins are above 30%, among the highest in the financial services industry, profits vary widely among firms, depending on their offerings and the scalability of their business models.

Morningstar reported earnings of $13.4 million, or 29 cents a share, for the first quarter, more than three times the $4 million, or nine cents a share, it earned in the year-ago period.

Putnam parent Marsh & McLennan Cos. is poised to recover after suffering $6.6 billion in outflows, according to Chief Executive Michael Cherkasky.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is about ready to revisit the controversial independent chairman rule, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told reporters Wednesday. He made the remarks following a House Financial Services Committee hearing. "We're a few days closer" to reopening the issue and putting it to a vote, Cox said.

Attorneys with Schiffrin & Barroway announced this week plans to file a class-action law suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of investors who purchased "shelf-space finds" from American International Group's Advisor Group broker/dealers between June 30, 2000 and June 8, 2005.

The Tinman's missing heart may make it hard to feel, but he'd probably do pretty well in the market, according to the Associated Press.

Individual investors might consider bulking up their portfolios using "mutual fund barbells" modeled after other types of barbells found among professional investors, suggests Bloomberg columnist Chet Currier.

PowerShares Capital Management has hired Robert C. Brooks of State Street Global Advisors, in an effort to further strengthen its upper management team. Brooks joins the company as senior vice president and national sales manager.

Pacific Life has decided to offer the Roth 401(k) option in its Individual(k) program, allowing small business plan participants to designate any contributions as pretax salary deferrals or after-tax Roth contributions.

Banning brokers from voting mutual fund shareholders' proxies for fund directors could potentially empower mutual fund investors, but could create a problem for some companies, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges last Friday against California-based CMG Capital Management Holding Co. and its key executive, Keith Gilabert, Compliance Reporter reports. The SEC alleges that not only did Gilabert and the firm pocket funds, they also misled investors about returns.

Concerns that separating research and trading fees violates brokerage firms' exemption under the Investment Act of 1940 are probably unwarranted, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission official, The Wall Street Journal reports.