Fidelity funds pull out of Google and financials in February (Reuters)  (02-04-2008)

BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments' two largest U.S. stock funds reduced their holdings in Google as well as financial firms in February increasing holdings of biotech company Genentech.

The funds are Magellan ($44.5 billion under management as of the end of December) and Contrafund ($71.5 billion under management).

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 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.

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 Source: Reuters