who let the dogs out!?!
(who let that song out?)
predictably, the street's biggest hound rolled over in the quarter.
500-million-dollar-burning-a-whole-in-my-pocket question: does FIDO jump back in after the next big tech rally?
(if this is what the buy side's like, i think i'll stick with my promo-whoring sell side.) <g>
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Scapegoat for Tech Meltdown? Try Fidelity
FreeEDGAR News
November 27, 2000
As technology and telecommunications stocks crashed in the third quarter, the nation's largest mutual fund complex was selling them aggressively. As the single largest player in the stock market, accounting for an estimated 15% of total volume, Fidelity Investments undoubtedly contributed to the market rout.
"It is easy to see why telecomm and tech crashed during the summer," says David O'Leary, president of Alpha Equity Research in Portsmouth, NH. He blames it on massive sales by FMR Corp., the holding company for Fidelity's various investment units. The sales included more than $1 billion each of stock in such market leaders as Nokia (NOK), Vodaphone Group and Nortel Networks (NT), and more than $500 million each of Lucent Technologies (LU), EMC Corp. (EMC) and JDS Uniphase (JDSU).
At the same time Fidelity was investing more than $1 billion each in General Electric (GE) and Coca-Cola (KO), and more than $500 million in Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Gemstar-TV Guide (GMST), ExxonMobil (XOM) and Gillette (G).
O'Leary uses FMR's EDGAR filings to track Fidelity's buying and selling. The company's latest Form 13F-HR, covering the third quarter, was filed Nov. 14.
FMR and other institutional investors are required to make the reports quarterly, detailing all of their holdings during the period. Sales and purchases don't have to be disclosed, but they can be deduced from comparing the latest report with that of three months earlier.
The same kind of calculations O'Leary's firm makes are also available to institutional clients of InsiderTrader.com, a subsidiary of EDGAR Online.
InsiderTrader.com's database shows that Fidelity owned or traded more than 2,800 individual names during the third quarter. That is a considerable fraction of the world's total: The Russell 3000 Index, which represents that many of the largest domestic corporations, covers 98% of the U.S. equity market, the world's largest.
During the quarter, Fidelity completely eliminated positions in 253 companies, including Rite Aid Corp. (RAD), Saks Inc. (SAK), Maxygen Inc. (MAXY), Micros Systems (MCRS) and Washington Post (WPO).
Fidelity's tech sales were not wholesale: It boosted its stake in Cisco Systems (CSCO) and now owns 4.7% of the company, up from 4.5% the prior quarter. Its stake in Microsoft (MSFT) was raised 22.4% to 145.6 million shares, or 2.7% of that company's total.
It also increased its commitment to Philip Morris (MO). It raised its stake in the consumer products conglomerate more than a third in the second quarter, to 153.7 million shares, and added another 4.9 million shares in the third. It owned 7.1% of the tobacco maker.
As a matter of policy, Fidelity doesn't comment on its trades or holdings. |
