MutualFundWire.com: Asset Managers Share Most of the Market's Respite

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Monday, March 30, 2020

Asset Managers Share Most of the Market's Respite

Despite a rough Friday, stocks bounced back a bit last week, and publicly traded asset managers felt some (but not all) of that love.

Jonathan Laurence Steinberg
WisdomTree Investments, Inc.
CEO

The S&P 500 rose 10.3 percent for the whole week, despite falling 3.4 percent on Friday. By comparison, shares in 20 publicly traded U.S. asset managers tracked by MFWire rose an average of 7.9 percent last week, despite a 3.9 percent drop on Friday.

Yet last week's gains did not compensate for the rest of the February and March pain. Those asset managers' shares have slipped an average of 30.4 percent so far this month (versus 21.2 percent for the S&P 500), 35.1 percent since the market peaked last month (versus 24.9 percent), 29.5 percent year-to-date (versus 21.3 percent), and 16.2 percent year-over-year (versus 9.4 percent).

As fundsters know well, market declines hit AUM, which hits their core revenue stream: asset-based fees.

Legg Mason remains the only one of these 20 asset managers that is up YTD, thanks no doubt to its pending sale in a cash deal.

Here are each of the 20 asset managers, ranked by their year-to-date share price performance:

WisdomTree (WETF, $391.092 million market cap), down 48 percent YTD, 48.8 percent since the market peaked, 40.2 percent this month, and 4.2 percent on Friday, and up 0.4 percent last week;

Gamco (GBL, $281.771 million market cap), down 47.1 percent YTD, 41.2 percent since the peak, 37.7 percent this month, 15.5 percent this week, and 14.4 percent on Friday;

Invesco (IVZ, $4.3 billion market cap), down 47 percent YTD and since the peak, 44.9 percent this month, and 4.5 percent on Friday, and up 9.6 percent last week;

Federated Hermes (FHI, $1.832 billion market cap), down 44.3 percent YTD, 50.4 percent since the peak, 49.9 percent this month, and 4 percent on Friday, and up 14.1 percent last week;

Diamond Hill (DHIL, $273.881 million market cap), down 40.7 percent YTD, 38.6 percent since the peak, 40.9 percent this month, 3.9 percent last week, and 8.6 percent on Friday;

Virtus (VRTS, $517.594 million market cap), down 38.1 percent YTD, 45.3 percent since the peak, 39 percent this month, and 4.4 percent on Friday, and up 10.8 percent on Friday;

AllianceBernstein (AB, $1.836 billion market cap), down 36.6 percent YTD, 46.3 percent since the peak, 41.4 percent this month, and 5.3 percent on Friday, and up 9.7 percent on Friday;

Cohen and Steers (CNS, $1.986 billion market cap), down 33.3 percent YTD, 46.4 percent since the peak, 43.4 percent this month, and 4.4 percent on Friday, and up 9.8 percent last week;

AMG ($2.698 billion market cap), down 33.2 percent YTD, 35 percent since the peak, 29.1 percent this month, and 0.8 percent on Friday, and up 15.6 percent last week;

Franklin Resources (BEN, $8.621 billion market cap), down 33.2 percent YTD, 31.6 percent since the peak, 31.4 percent this month, and 4.8 percent on Friday, and up 2.7 percent last week;

Manning and Napier (MN, $18.873 million market cap), down 32.6 percent YTD, 34.8 percent since the peak, 38.9 percent this month, and 0.9 percent on Friday, and up 1.8 percent last week;

Ivy's parent, Waddell & Reed (WDR, $723.413 million market cap), down 31.7 percent YTD, 31 percent since the peak, 29.6 percent this month, 4.7 percent last week, and 4.6 percent on Friday;

Artisan Partners (APAM, $1.717 billion market cap), down 30.1 percent YTD, 39 percent since the peak, 32.3 percent this month, and 2 percent on Friday, and up 12.1 percent last week;

Eaton Vance (EV, $3.724 billion market cap), down 29.9 percent YTD, 36.7 percent since the peak, 29 percent this month, and 2.2 percent on Friday, and up 16.8 percent last week;

U.S. Global Investors (GROW, $15.432 million market cap), down 28.9 percent YTD, 21.9 percent since the peak, 22.4 percent this month, and 1.9 percent on Friday, and up 13.3 percent last week;

Victory Capital (VCTR, $1.042 billion market cap), down 22.8 percent YTD, 29.6 percent since the peak, 22.4 percent this month, and 1.9 percent on Friday, and up 12.1 percent last week;

T. Rowe Price (TROW, $22.97 billion market cap), down 19.2 percent YTD, 28.5 percent since the peak, 26.3 percent this month, and 2.9 percent on Friday, and up 9 percent last week;

Hennessy (HNNA, $62.355 million market cap), down 15.1 percent YTD, 22.4 percent since the peark, 15.8 percent this month, and 0.5 percent on Friday, and up 17.9 percent last week;

BlackRock (BLK, $67.668 billion market cap), down 13.6 percent YTD, 23.5 percent since the peak, 17.6 percent this month, and 3.9 percent on Friday, and up 22.4 percent last week; and

Legg Mason (LM, $4.2 billion market cap), up 34.6 percent YTD, 23.4 percent this month, and 3.6 percent last week, and down 4.1 percent since the peak and 0.9 percent on Friday.