But historically, I have found that if you can identify people that you trust, that are extremely knowledgeable about their industry and enthusiastic about their company, and in some cases, ideally, are founders of the companyand, therefore, the company is an expression of who they are and what they are and they really want to grow the company--then that's the perfect situation, especially if it's a good business and they have a differentiated product offering and a great value proposition. An error has occurred, please try again later. (2008) and Bloodrunners (2017). And then there is the incomparable Will Danoff, manager of Fidelity Contrafund (symbol FCNTX ), a member of the Kiplinger 25. And I hope everybody has a great year. Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. Our investment management business generates asset-based fees, which are calculated as a percentage of assets under management. Do you wait for FDA approval? Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. And I only knew the name of the company. What are we thinking about management? You know, what I tell the team is, When in doubt, let's call the company. And again, as a large shareholder, I have that opportunity to just call the company, or the Fidelity systems are good that I can pull up every weekend the research notes that have been written on my top 50 positions, and the top 50 might be 65% of the fund. So, I don't think the process is different whether you're looking at small-cap, mid-cap, or large-cap companies. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? During Danoff's 30-year tenure, the Fidelity Contrafund has outperformed the S&P 500 in 100% of rolling 10-year time periods; it has outperformed the S&P 500 Index by an average of 3.21 percentage pointsRead More What are you doing to grow your company's earnings per share? During his nearly three-decade tenure at Contrafund, Will has trounced the market indexes and, even more remarkably, managed to maintain the fund's performance at scale. I tend to try to empathize with the executives that we're working with and try to think about what they're thinking about and maybe ask good questions. Even Fidelity's $230 Billion Star Manager Has Robinhood Anxiety. This year, he marks three decades of managing the $131 billion But capacity--you know, I'm my degree of difficulty is harder than a smaller fund. [1] At US $129 billion, Contrafund is the largest actively managed stock or bond mutual fund run by one person. So I ran into at about 12:35, and there was an empty seat, and I sat down. My denominator is so big that it's not that easy to find really great stories at scale."[4]. So that'swhatever--coming up on 16 years, and I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, we decided that we needed to visit Mountain View more regularly and asked for visits with somebody other than just the CFO. He is an actor, known for Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), Good Will Hunting (1997) and Alien: Covenant (2017). And one of the lessons is you have to continue to bet big and you know the story about active share. His office accepts new patients. There are some tricks to the trade that I implement. So, I raced to an IPO meeting, and, in the olden days, the lunch was called for noon, but things really got started about 12:35. Benefit (s): Of the fourteen snail species introduced to Hawaii for the biological control of A. fulica, only three have become established: Euglandina rosea, Gonaxis kibweziensis and Gonaxis quadrilateralis . In 2015, Danoff's 25-year solo management became an issue of concern as Fidelity had not named a co-manager for Contrafund. It's like, oh my gosh, you know, XYZ is going to hurt this company. the largest U.S. mutual fund run by a single manager. When you look back over a 20-year time horizon, you just see a pattern that you want to replicate going forward. I tend not to do well in what I call v bottom industries, like in semiconductors, where things are really bad and then all of a sudden the light changes and all of a sudden things are really good and things have bottomed and are getting better. Tom Ford. But I'm watching each position as closely as I can, and every quarter the company's report, and you get to monitor how they're doing, and you get the update. Why haven't you done those things? Investments in foreign securities involve greater risk than U.S. investments. I think one of the huge competitive advantages Fidelity has is our access to managements and access at important inflection points. And, again, paying attention and monitoring out-of-favor groups and trying to identify I can remember when everyone hated the airline industry. 5 stars. Danoff: That's a great question, Christine. Danoff: That's a really good question, Christine. How has that changed in the last few decades in which you've been running money? And do you expect that to ramp up further in the future? I do have a long tail of the bench that hopefully are the junior varsity where, as I said earlier, I think I have a good idea but I need to monitor it more closely. Will Danoff and Joel Tillinghast are veteran portfolio managers with different investment styles. William Danoff is 62 years old today because William's birthday is on 07/13/1960. And that's one way to improve your understanding of important trends that important companies like Google are seeing and then assess the quality of the management below just the CFO or the CEO. And I think as human beings, it's a lot easier to do the latter. Life: Fidelity Contrafund 12.19%, S&P 500 Index not applicable. So, you sell a little and then you realize you overreacted. Let's call the company together, or let's go visit the company together. Because, if you, Jeff, and I were working together, and I was just out at a conference and came back and said, Oh, my gosh, ABC Company sounded awesome. And the entrepreneur and founder is able to build a team, and I think before it's all over, maybe it will be wise to wait until the company is public. She had some amateur wins of note in the 1940s, and played LPGA events into the 1970s. You've always been different in your approach. Maybe it's growing faster than people think. And if you haven't seen it, it's a very good letter. They're low capital intensity because they outsource their manufacturing. And again, it goes back to who you are, and maybe certain money managers have to justify their higher fees by being out there pressing management, but you know, it's a very good point, Christine. To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research. But at the time, people weren't paying attention to airlines and Europe was sort of a no growth, low growth space. So, in terms of portfolio construction, in the last 30 years, I've taken bigger bets. And we can also monitor all of these companies overseas. [1] At US $129 billion, Contrafund is the largest actively managed stock or bond mutual fund run by one person.[2]. It is not possible to invest in an index. But it's when you get a second king that you want to bet more. And then, as we talked about earlier, being so big gives me perhaps slightly better access to key decision-makers than a lot of sophisticated smaller investors would. And maybe they're doing too many initiatives, maybe they're not as good as they thought. For his accomplishments, Morningstar named Will its Domestic-Stock Manager of the Year in 2007. Jeff Ptak is an employee of Morningstar Research Services LLC. Sep.17 -- Will Danoff, who as manager of Fidelity's Contrafund has beaten the S&P 500 for three decades, makes the case for active management in the era of E. You know, if you think about it, Jeff, the larger companies in the S&P now are $1 trillion market caps. Are we going to get sold again to some conglomerate or to some private equity firm?. You haven't appeared in commercials or written books or taken to Twitter, and you could do any of those things and gain a big following and greater notoriety. Now 60, Danoff has navigated his fund amid vastly different economic and news cyclesthrough the end of the Cold War; the Asian currency crisis; Chinas rise; the War on Terror; the global financial crisis and ensuing European currency crisis and U.S. credit downgrade; and now, the coronavirus pandemic. But I think a lot of companies stay private longer because they were able to receive higher and higher valuations without having to go public. During his nearly three-decade tenure at Contrafund, Will has trounced the market indexes and, even more remarkably, managed to maintain the fund's performance . And sometimes it's just a matter of, Hey, you know, you haven't been to Boston in a couple of years. India is emerging as an important experimental ground for a lot of new technology as well. Morningstar and its affiliates are not affiliated with this guest or his or her business affiliates unless otherwise stated. And they have basically gone from a startup airline in Europe to I think--they're like 25% of all passengers now flying in Europe fly on Ryanair, and they've done a great, great job. Morningstar Research Services is a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. and is registered with and governed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The American Funds team managed about $138.9 Billion; about a quarter larger than Contrafund. On the other hand, you do have to find the right balance in life. I have to explain that I've become a little stodgy in my old age. It sounds like that's personality-driven--that you like to dive into those details yourself. How high are expectations? And the executive said, You know, we're not really competing with the airlines. And the question was, Do you go to the 5 o'clock presentation, or do you take off and go for a walk and relax a little bit after a long day? He has crossed all the competition over 30 years. During his nearly three-decade tenure at Contrafund, Will has trounced the market indexes and, even more remarkably, managed to maintain the fund's performance at scale. Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Morningstar Index (Market Barometer) quotes are real-time. Masters in Business. Bio of Golfer Bettye Danoff, an LPGA Founder Bettye Danoff never won on the LPGA Tour, but she still has a very important place in tour history: She was one of the tour's 13 founding members. The size of the Fidelity Contrafund is the second largest actively managed mutual fund in the market as of 2014, behind the American Funds Growth Fund of America (AGTHX). No patient rating & comments. And I'd say that we have meetings with these managements just like the other large institutions. You know, sort of like, basically the cost of that being whatever capital you'd have to divert from your next best idea, or does circle of competence, however you would define that, enter into it as well? Fidelity Contrafund versus the S&P 500 index over five periods: 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and life of the portfolio. And they were a relatively small player with a differentiated product and mostly selling balances to labs. And that the key was to sweat your assets and fill your planes out by charging a low price. Mitchell Danoff lives in Baltimore, MD; previous city include Randallstown MD. Will runs a number of Fidelity equity strategies, best known of which is Fidelity Contrafund, a mutual fund he has been managing since September 1990. And so, one has to be very careful. And I'm constantly looking for better ideas. Insights from Fidelity's portfolio managers. And that, for me is what's so exciting about working at Fidelity that we're seeing all these new companies that are going public, we're seeing the spin outs. . And there are a lot of really good companies out there, but what I'm trying to do, as we talked about earlier, is find the exceptional companies and trying to bet bigger on the exceptional ones. And in talking to company management--what do you think you get from that experience? 1 year: Fidelity Contrafund -28.26%, S&P 500 Index -18.11%. Bill Danoff was born on May 7, 1946 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. And I've added value relative to the index. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe to and rate The Long View from Morningstar on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Through the crises, Danoff has focused on companies led by founders or engaged management that can double earnings over five years, on the theory that stock prices will follow. I mean, it's great, and clearly, culture starts at the top, but when you have access to people who are making the decisions, who are actually out in the field seeing the competitive response or knowing the challenges of delighting the customer, that can really, really help, and I think larger funds like Contrafund have that advantage to do more in-depth research. I mean, when Facebook went public, they were--and Google, they were--both nicely profitable, growing companies. And this letter was written by the parents of a young child, 1 year old boy. Performance data shown represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. I mean, when I was an analyst, I can remember calling companies after they reported and pleading with somebody in the CFOs office to either read me the details of the income statement and balance sheet, or then to fax me the information quickly, but I do remember part of the job was to call the company and ask for a packet. I feel really lucky to be here. You can't necessarily call your trader and say buy $1 billion worth of company XYZ. indexs 10.4%. Discover Owen Danoff's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Joel Tillinghast, who's the great manager of the Low-Priced Stock fund, and I have done very well here at Fidelity. In 2007, Morningstar named him ``Domestic Stock Manager of the Year``. I think the book of business is about $185 billion now, maybe a little higher. You do run a lot of money--I think over $100 billion in assets as of last year across the different strategies that you're responsible for, the largest of which is Contrafund. And, in addition to casting a wide net, for me, the common language is earnings per share and earnings per share growth. E. rosea has become invasive and has exerted a major ecological impact on the native Hawaiian snail fauna. And that it's really hard to know that you're going to win the hand when everybody only has two cards. Do you attempt to improve what you're not good at? Mr. Over the past year through February 11, Contra returned 27.6%,. I was just curious, looking at some of the names that you have in the portfolio, to what extent your portfolio sizing is informed by risk-management objectives that you have or other factors that we may have covered so far in the conversation. Let's then call the company together. The duo later evolved into Bill and Taffy and toured with Denver in the early '70s. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Let's say, a 50-basis-point or 100-basis-point bet immediately. And when you have a great team, it takes time to work with the team, make sure you're listening to your analysts and associates and other fund managers. If you think ABC Company is the best in your group, I'm willing to accept that. And I like a lot of the companies I own, and I'm monitoring them, and I'm very excited about them. Danoff: Yeah, no, it's a combination, Jeff. I hadn't really prepared, but I was just going to just learn about this new company. So we can learn, but the monitoring of these companies takes a lot of time, but it can be very, very instructive as to the quality of the company that you're invested in or considering investing. But the ideas of delighting your customer don't go away, whether it's finding a new drug for a rare disease or developing a new software program, either for an enterprise or for a consumer. Ptak: And at @Syouth1, which is, S-Y-O-U-T-H and the number 1. This includes companies that have shown a strong competitive position, high returns on capital, and solid free cash flow generation, as well as management teams that have been stewards of shareholder capital. William Danoff, who has led a long and successful career in finance, is a vice president and fund manager with Fidelity Investments. Learn about Fidelity's active equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). William Thomas Danoff (born May 7, 1946) is an American songwriter and singer. But, you know, what we've all learned is we want to make sure that the management team is particularly special. You're different. Market corrections occur, so staying the course with a skilled manager may benefit shareholders over the long term. 2. Danoff: I'm not sure of the percentage, Christine. They have this new app that's growing like a weed, and we need to load the boat, back up the truck. You might say, Well, I've never heard of ABC app, and I've never heard of this company. Do you have kind of a too hard pile--either types of companies or maybe industries that you just say, This has not historically worked out well for me. And this is always this debate I have when I think about biotech as a sector, and there are some very smart scientists who are pursuing important on medical needs. And it was again, it was a Friday afternoon, maybe in the summer, and there weren't that many people there. The first is, I was just curious how you think about the path to outperformance, whether you're conscious of the need to produce a few, call them supercompounders. So, I'm trying to bet big with the bigger companies. Wed like to share more about how we work and what drives our day-to-day business. I tend not to do well when we have to make a quick pivot. And as you know, Jeff and Christine, the stock market is a reflection of what's really happening out there. Turnover is maybe 35%. Ptak: If I may, I wanted to ask quickly about portfolio construction--a couple of aspects of it. How we use your information depends on the product and service that you use and your relationship with us. You can't always assume that managements going to do the right thing. Total value December 31, 2022 for Contrafund was $457,343, compared to $234,530 for the S&P 500 Index. This chart is not intended to imply any future performance of the investment product. A letter from Dr. Danoff to readers: My name is Dr. Dudley Danoff. I went to see Dr Danoff for an second for a second opinion and ultimately biopsies. Will Danoff32 years This week, we speak with Fidelity's Will Danoff, who manages the firm's storied Contrafund.The large-cap growth fund has $139 billion in assets under management. They have one child. Such opinions are subject to change. You think about your own life: If you're strong in one area, you don't necessarily want to change, and managements sometimes have difficulty changing because they've been so successful. Springfield, Massachusetts, USA vice president and fund manager with Fidelity.! 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