To Turn Back a Vicious Tide, Three Funds Thought Small
nytimes.com
Peter I. Higgins, who runs the $347 million Dreyfus Small Company Value fund, is unperturbed by the chaotic stock market. "Despite the difficulties," he said, "there are still a lot of stocks that have done well."
The performance of the fund in the first quarter was broadly based; about two-thirds of its 130 stocks posted gains. It took fifth place among domestic diversified stock funds, gaining 15.4 percent. The fund, however, has been closed to new investors since April 1998.
Mr. Higgins, 39, describes himself as a "contrarian, bottom-up stock picker" who buys value when and where he finds it, sometimes in nontraditional places like technology. His tech stocks helped him in the first quarter, along with consumer, retail and radio stocks.
His biggest winner, up 73.7 percent, was Informix, a database management software company based in Westboro, Mass. Its price tumbled after what Mr. Higgins said was a poorly executed merger with Ardent Software in 2000. A new chief executive, Peter Gyenes, the former Ardent chief executive, took over in late 2000 and is taking steps to improve profitability, Mr. Higgins said.
The stock ended the quarter at $5.16; he expects it to reach $10 by year-end.
Thanks to ZorpFundCEO on the Yahoo thread. |
