Fidelity’s Changes In Place

Fidelity Investments fund managers are moving quickly to make changes in the portfolios assigned to them when the firm shook up its stock-picking group in March, according to a company report released Friday.

Harry Lange, the new manager of the $1.7 billion Capital Appreciation Fund, initiated a 9.5 percent stake in technology stocks in March. At the same time, he reduced the fund’s holdings of energy stocks to 12.9 percent from 20 percent, Fidelity said in its monthly mutual fund guide.

“(Lange) is doing precisely what he ought to be doing, which is buying more growth-oriented stocks for a fund whose name and charter is capital appreciation,” said John Bonnanzio, editor of Fidelity Insight, an independent newsletter that tracks the nation’s No. 1 fund group.

Managers Rich Fentin and Bettina Doulton also are adjusting their new funds, Bonnanzio said.

Fentin boosted the $6.7 billion Value Fund’s holdings of energy stocks to 11.4 percent on March 31 from 6.2 percent on Feb. 29 and initiated a stake of 9.3 percent in retail stocks, Fidelity reported.

Doulton increased the $16.9 billion Puritan Fund’s stake in Philip Morris Cos. and raised its bond holdings to 32.9 percent on March 31 from 25.6 percent on Feb. 29. Fentin and Doulton swapped jobs in March when Fidelity changed the managers of 23 of its mutual funds. It was the broadest management shuffle in the firm’s 50-year history.

The changes were designed to improve the performance of some Fidelity funds and to put managers in charge of funds that best suited the way they manage money.

Lange, for instance, replaced Tom Sweeney as manager of the Capital Appreciation Fund to capitalize on Lange’s strength in picking growth stocks, analysts said. Sweeney was reassigned.

As an organization, Fidelity, the nation’s biggest fund group, is getting more bullish on energy stocks.

The $56 billion Magellan Fund raised its holdings of energy stocks to 10.7 percent of the portfolio in March from 6.3 percent in February.

The $18.8 billion Contrafund boosted its energy stock holdings to 18.7 percent from 14.1 percent in the period. Contrafund’s 10 biggest holdings at the end of March included energy-related stocks such as Schlumberger Ltd., Halliburton Co. and Texaco Inc.