Fidelity funds cut Google, finance holdings in Feb

By Muralikumar Anantharaman

BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments' two largest U.S. stock funds cut their holdings in Web search leader Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and financial firms in February and raised their holdings of biotech company Genentech (DNA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Google holdings of the $71.5 billion Contrafund, Fidelity's biggest stock fund, fell to $2.95 billion at the end of February from $3.63 billion at the end of January, according to data posted on Fidelity's Web site on Sunday.

The Contrafund had $81 billion in assets under management as of December 2007. Its holdings have shrunk to $71.5 billion.

The $38.4 billion Magellan, a large-cap growth fund, owned $1.04 billion worth of Google shares at the end of February against $1.81 billion a month earlier, the data show. Magellan had $44.5 billion under management as of the end of December.

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, a multi-cap growth fund, saw the value of its Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) holdings drop by 21.7 percent in February to $1.62 billion, compared with a 7.6 percent drop in the stock of the iPod maker for the month, the data show.