Fidelity Management & Research Company, or FMR, was among the giants which released its quarterly holdings over the most recent days.  While it is always interesting to see which holdings are the top holdings, most traders look at the big portfolio changes to try to gain insight into the minds of fund managers. We looked through the top holdings valued at $1 billion or more solely for the Fidelity Management & Research Company unit and we looked for positions where the position changed by more than 10% up or down by measure of share count rather than by the dollar amount.

There were some serious additions in Q2 in the financial sector to its portfolios.  The tech sector saw some mixed changes, while the drug and consumer changes looked lower.  There was a surprise cut in a key conglomerate and a huge add to one of the Battlestar Galactica coffee stocks.

Of the larger changes to its top holdings in financial stocks, FMR’s major large changes were all additional stakes being taken.  WELLS FARGO & CO (NYSE: WFC) was listed as $6.05 billion via 249.45 million shares, a gain of roughly 36 million shares. J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO INC. (NYSE: JPM) was worth $5.44 billion from a stake of almost 159.6 million shares, a gain of over 7.1 million shares. BANK OF AMERICA CORP. (NYSE: BAC) was listed as $4.17 billion via a stake of 315.9 million shares, but that is effectively a doubling in size of shares from its Q1 reporting.  GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC. (NYSE: GS) was listed as a $3.44 billion stake via 23.35 million shares, a gain of roughly 7 million shares of stock. MORGAN STANLEY (NYSE: MS) was a stake worth some $2.5 billion via some 87.8 million shares, also more than double its previous shares listed.

APPLE INC. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of its top few holdings at $5.96 billion, and this was a gain of more than 10% to 4,59 million shares. MICROSOFT CORP. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was a huge gain by almost one-third of its stake to some 163 million shares of stock worth a reported $3.87 billion. ORACLE CORP. (NASDAQ: ORCL) was listed as being worth some $2.79 billion via 130.3 million shares, a gain of about 15.3 million shares.  IBM (IBM) was worth $1.00 billion via 9.62 million shares, but this is after a drop of roughly 4.3 million shares.

There was an increase in the leading networker and a decrease in its top up-coming rival.  CISCO SYSTEMS INC. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was worth $2.82 billion via some  151.45 million shares, a gain of over 20 million shares. JUNIPER NETWORKS INC. was a stake listed as worth $1.36 billion via almost 57.8 million shares, but this was a drop of over 11.6 million shares.

There was no serious conviction nor any serious directional change in energy via the majors, but again this was just a change in the largest positions.  EXXON MOBIL CORP. was worth $3.33 billion via 47.7 million shares, a drop of over 11 million shares.  CHEVRON CORP. (NYSE: CVX) was listed as being worth $2.41 billion via 36.3 million shares, a gain of more than 5.2 million shares. ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC (NYSE: RDS-B) was the big change.  That stake was worth $1.00 billion via 19.8 million shares, but that was after it boosted its stake by over 13.6 million shares.

Of the big changes in medical and drugs, it looks like there was a cut in directional change.  PFIZER INC. was a stake worth $2.96 billion via 197.4 million shares, which was more than 26 million shares above the rest.  PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. was a stake worth $2.76 billion via 54.1 million shares, a drop of almost 10 million shares. JOHNSON & JOHNSON (NYSE: JNJ) was worth $2.59 billion via 45.6 million shares, a drop of 7.9 million shares. MERCK & CO INC. was worth $1.21 billion via a stake of 43.48 million shares, but that looked to be down by more than 12 million shares.  WYETH (NYSE: WYE) was the unwanted step child in the group as the 24.89 million shares stake worth $1.12 billion, but the drop was significant as it was down from over 47 million shares a quarter before.  EXPRESS SCRIPTS INC. (NASDAQ: ESRX) was the big gain in the healthcare sector.  The $1.52 billion stake was from 22.1 million shares of stock, but this was a gain of more than 6.9 million shares.

We saw a directional change in the two largest telecom players.  FMR added to its
VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. (NYSE: VZ) stake worth $2.22 billion via some 72.56 million shares, a gain of roughly 10.12 million shares.  AT&T INC. (NYSE: T) was a smaller stake of shares worth $1.65 billion via some 66.82 million shares, a decrease of more than 25.8 million shares.

There was a huge cut, and a rather surprising one, in one of the conglomerate stocks.  GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. (NYSE: GE) was listed a stake worth some $1.43 billion via more than 122.4 million shares, but that is a drop of roughly 50 million shares of common stock from one quarter to the next. UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP. (NYSE: UTX) was worth $1.24 billion via a 23.9 million share stake, a gain of more than 2.56 million shares.

There was a huge gain in a miscellaneous food and retailer stock.  FMR boosted its stake in STARBUCKS CORP. (NASDAQ: SBUX) by more than 100% to almost 75.3 million shares worth $1.04 billion as of the end of the quarter.

Be advised that this was from the filing and was of the Fidelity Management & Research Company, and does not include shares transferred or hedged or otherwise not available to be seen in that subsidiary.  There are other Fidelity subsidiaries that were not counted in this tally and it is never possible to know if these positions were temporary changes or if they were broad portfolio changes.

JON C. OGG
AUGUST 17, 2009

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