Fidelity Contrafund

Last updated

Fidelity Contrafund (symbol FCNTX) is a mutual fund operated and provided by Fidelity Investments. Its current manager is William Danoff, who has headed the fund since 1990. Contrafund's AUM (assets under management) as of July 2015 total over 112 billion USD. As of 2015 Contrafund was the second-largest actively-managed mutual fund in the US by assets, after AGTHX (Growth Fund of America, managed by American Funds), and was the largest mutual fund of any type managed by an individual. [1]

Contents

History

The fund's name stems from its original mandate in 1967: "the fund's mission was to take a contrarian view, investing in out-of-favor stocks or sectors." [2] This strategy has changed since the 1990s to become a fund focused on growth investing in large companies, and the Contrafund's strong history of growth has led to its being "a stalwart of many 401(k) plans". [2]

In 2015, Danoff's 25-year solo management became an issue of concern as Fidelity had not named a co-manager for Contrafund. [3] Should Danoff become incapacitated without a co-manager or succession plan, Contrafund might face major redemptions from shareholders and lose its position in many large retirement plans which typically require at least three years of manager tenure.

Related Research Articles

Passive management is an investing strategy that tracks a market-weighted index or portfolio. Passive management is most common on the equity market, where index funds track a stock market index, but it is becoming more common in other investment types, including bonds, commodities and hedge funds.

A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in Europe and open-ended investment company (OEIC) in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fidelity Investments</span> American multinational financial services corporation

Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is one of the largest asset managers in the world with $4.3 trillion in assets under management, and, as of December 2022, their assets under administration amount to $10.3 trillion. Fidelity Investments operates a brokerage firm, manages a large family of mutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice, retirement services, index funds, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, asset custody, and life insurance.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product, i.e. they are traded on stock exchanges.

The Vanguard Group, Inc., is an American registered investment advisor based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with about $7.7 trillion in global assets under management, as of April 2023. It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the world after BlackRock's iShares. In addition to mutual funds and ETFs, Vanguard offers brokerage services, educational account services, financial planning, asset management, and trust services. Several mutual funds managed by Vanguard are ranked at the top of the list of US mutual funds by assets under management. Along with BlackRock and State Street, Vanguard is considered to be one of the Big Three index fund managers that play a dominant role in corporate America.

Peter Lynch is an American investor, mutual fund manager, author and philanthropist. As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between 1977 and 1990, Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return, consistently more than double the S&P 500 stock market index and making it the best-performing mutual fund in the world. During his 13-year tenure, assets under management increased from US$18 million to $14 billion.

Contrarian investing is an investment strategy that is characterized by purchasing and selling in contrast to the prevailing sentiment of the time.

Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institutions, such as insurance companies, pension funds, corporations, charities, educational establishments, or private investors, either directly via investment contracts/mandates or via collective investment schemes like mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or REITs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AllianceBernstein</span> American asset management firm

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P.(AB) is a global asset management firm providing investment management and research services worldwide to institutional, high-net-worth and retail investors.

A unit trust is a form of collective investment constituted under a trust deed. A unit trust pools investors' money into a single fund, which is managed by a fund manager. Unit trusts offer access to a wide range of investments, and depending on the trust, it may invest in securities such as shares, bonds, gilts, and also properties, mortgage and cash equivalents. Those investing in the trust own "units" whose price is called the "net asset value" (NAV). The number of these units is not fixed and when more is invested in a unit trust, more units are created.

In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, measures the total market value of all the financial assets which an individual or financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institution—or a decentralized network protocol controls, typically on behalf of a client. Funds may be managed for clients, platform users, or solely for themselves, such as in the case of a financial institution which has mutual funds or holds its own venture capital. The definition and formula for calculating AUM may differ from one entity to another.

The Fidelity Magellan Fund is a U.S.-domiciled mutual fund from the Fidelity family of funds. It is perhaps the world's best-known actively managed mutual fund, known particularly for its record-setting growth under the management of Peter Lynch from 1977 to 1990. On January 14, 2008, Fidelity announced that the fund would open to new investors for the first time in over a decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. Rowe Price</span> American publicly owned investment firm

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is an American publicly owned global investment management firm that offers funds, subadvisory services, separate account management, and retirement plans and services for individuals, institutions, and financial intermediaries. The firm has assets under management of more than $1.6 trillion and annual revenues of $6.2 billion as of 2020, placing it 447 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. companies. Headquartered at 100 East Pratt Street in Baltimore, Maryland, it has 5,000 employees in Baltimore and 16 international offices serving clients in 47 countries.

Anthony Bolton is a former investment fund manager and successful investor in the United Kingdom. He managed the Fidelity Special Situations fund from December 1979 to December 2007, and then managed Fidelity China Special Situations PLC, a London Stock Exchange listed investment trust, until his retirement in April 2014. He is also a musician and a composer.

William Danoff is known for being a vice-president and portfolio manager of Fidelity Contrafund. At US $129 billion, Contrafund is the largest actively managed stock or bond mutual fund run by one person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Target date fund</span> Type of collective investment fund

A target date fund (TDF), also known as a lifecycle fund, dynamic-risk fund, or age-based fund, is a collective investment scheme, often a mutual fund or a collective trust fund, designed to provide a simple investment solution through a portfolio whose asset allocation mix becomes more conservative as the target date approaches.

Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC is an independent, privately-held investment management company headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. The firm offers a variety of fixed−income and equity strategies to individual and institutional investors. Lord Abbett has a global presence with offices in Jersey City, Dubai, Dublin, London, Montevideo, Singapore, Tokyo, and Zurich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amundi</span> French asset management firm

Amundi is a French asset management company. With €2 trillion of assets under management (AUM) at the end of 2021, it is the largest asset manager in Europe and one of the 10 biggest investment managers in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Investment fund</span> Way of investing money alongside other investors

An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geode Capital Management</span> American Investment Management firm based in Boston, Massachusetts

Geode Capital Management, LLC (Geode) is an American investment management firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.

References

  1. "Everything You Need to Know About The Fidelity Contrafund Mutual Fund". Money.
  2. 1 2 Rosevear, John (25 April 2015). "Fidelity Contrafund: Beating the Market the Old-Fashioned Way -". The Motley Fool.
  3. "Fidelity's Danoff is face of key man risk as he hits 25-year mark". Reuters. 14 September 2015.