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Facebook Rout Chops Almost $3 Billion From Five Top Mutual Funds

The social network’s shares are down about 17 percent since March 16.

Facebook Rout Chops Almost $3 Billion From Five Top Mutual Funds
Privacy setting shortcuts are displayed on Apple Inc. iPhone 6 smartphone screen as a FaceBook Inc. logo is seen in this arranged photograph taken in London, U.K. (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Owning a big stake in Facebook has helped many mutual funds outperform in the past few years. Not so much lately.

The social network’s shares are down about 17 percent since March 16 after reports that Cambridge Analytica siphoned data from tens of millions of Facebook users. The rout is taking a huge toll on some of the biggest mutual funds -- to the tune of $2.7 billion.

For William Danoff’s $129.6 billion Fidelity Contrafund, which has almost 7 percent of its assets in Facebook, that slide translates to a loss of about $1.6 billion. Contrafund held about 50 million Facebook shares as of Jan. 31, more than any other active mutual fund.

As the chart below shows, the five funds with the most Facebook shares as a percent of total assets have each slid about 6 percent since March 16. The funds have at least $10 billion in assets.

Fund NameFacebook Shares
as % of Total Fund
Total Fund Assets
(in $ billions)
Fund’s % Decline *
Fidelity Contrafund6.95%$129.66.4%
Invesco American Franchise 6.1410.46.2
Edgewood Growth5.4012.15.7
T Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth5.2751.26.3
MFS Growth5.2017.45.8

* = Covers drop from March 16 through March 27.

There is some good news for the managers who have been betting on Facebook, a list that includes Larry Puglia of the $51.2 billion T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund. They’re still beating the vast majority of their peers this year. Puglia is outperforming 90 percent of rivals and Danoff is ahead of 96 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

--With assistance from Brandon Kochkodin

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Stein in Boston at cstein4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella, Mary Romano

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.