BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments' two largest U.S. stock funds cut their holdings in Web search leader Google <GOOG.O> and financial firms in February and raised their holdings of biotech company Genentech <DNA.N>.
By Muralikumar Anantharaman
BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments' two largest U.S. stock funds cut their holdings in Web search leader Google <GOOG.O> and financial firms in February and raised their holdings of biotech company Genentech <DNA.N>.
Google holdings of the $71.5 billion Contrafund, Fidelity's biggest stock fund, fell to $2.95 billion at the end of February from $3.63 billion at the end of January, according to data posted on Fidelity's Web site on Sunday.
The Contrafund had $81 billion in assets under management as of December 2007. Its holdings have shrunk to $71.5 billion.
!ADVERTISEMENT!The $38.4 billion Magellan, a large-cap growth fund, owned $1.04 billion worth of Google shares at the end of February against $1.81 billion a month earlier, the data show. Magellan had $44.5 billion under management as of the end of December.
The 18.7 percent drop in the value of Contrafund's Google holdings and the 42.5 percent slide in the value of Magellan's holdings of Google outpaced the 16.5 percent fall in Google's stock price in February.
Google's share price lost 36.3 percent in the first three months of 2008, its worst quarterly performance. The stock was up 4.5 percent at $460.47 on Tuesday afternoon in a strong overall market.
Fidelity declined to comment on the portfolio changes.
Contrafund, a multi-cap growth fund, saw the value of its Apple Inc <AAPL.O> holdings drop by 21.7 percent in February to $1.62 billion, compared with a 7.6 percent drop in the stock of the iPod maker for the month, the data show.
Magellan, run by Harry Lange, appears to have bought Yahoo Inc <YHOO.O> after the $44.6 billion bid made for the Internet media firm by software giant Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O>. The fund reported a $122 million stake in Yahoo at the end of February.
Fidelity's flagship fund raised its holdings of Motorola Inc <MOT.N>, owning $226.3 million of the cell phone and network equipment maker at the end of February, up 55 percent from a month ago. Motorola shares fell 13.5 percent in February.
Magellan also raised its ownership of bond insurer MBIA Inc <MBI.N> 12-fold to $167 million at the end of February from $13.6 million a month ago, the data show. MBIA shares dropped 16.3 percent during the month.
CONTRAFUND CUT GOLDMAN, LEHMAN
Overall, Magellan's exposure to the financial sector dropped to 8.3 percent at end-February from 8.9 percent a month earlier. Contrafund's holdings in the sector fell to 12.1 percent from 14.4 percent, the data show.
Contrafund manager Will Danoff cut his fund's holdings of investment banks Goldman Sachs <GS.N> by 39 percent to $144.2 million and Lehman Brothers <LEH.N> by 62 percent to $65.2 million at the end of February. He also slashed holdings of Citigroup <C.N> by 79 percent to $39.6 million, the data show.
Contrafund's holdings of oil and gas company EOG Resources <EOG.N> rose 62 percent to $591 million at end-February against the stock's 36 percent gain in the month, the data show.
Contrafund and Magellan added to their Genentech positions. Contrafund owned $1.44 billion of the biotech firm at the end of February, up 10.8 percent from the prior month, and Magellan more than doubled its ownership to $298 million from $135.7 million. The stock rose 7.9 percent for the month.
Contrafund and Magellan are underperforming their benchmarks this year. Contrafund lost 11.2 percent and Magellan was down 12.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the S&P 500 index's which was down 9.40 percent for the same period.
Overall, Fidelity managed $1.5 trillion in assets as of end-February.
(Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
