Magellan Off $1.87 Billion, or 3.3% of Overall Assets

BOSTON — The assets of Fidelity Investments’ Magellan Fund have fallen about $1.87 billion since March 31 as its investments lagged the markets, shareholders withdrew funds and manager Jeffrey Vinik resigned.

Magellan assets have fallen to about $54.29 billion from $56.16 billion on March 31 amid net withdrawals over the last 2 1/2 months, according to Fidelity Insight, an independent newsletter that tracks the nation’s No. 1 fund group.

The fund’s total return was a negative 0.12% since March 31.

“These are short-term, extraneous factors and things will turn soon as performance improves,” said Eric Kobren, executive editor of Fidelity Insight.

The fund was ranked as the 3,614th-best-performing of 3,842 stock funds tracked this year up to last Thursday by the research group Lipper Analytical Services Inc. It’s up just 1.65% this year.

The fund’s performance was hurt by a big investment in long-term bonds during a period when the fixed-income markets were slumping. Magellan had 19.2% of its assets invested in bonds on April 30, Fidelity reported recently.

The $1.87-billion reduction in Magellan’s assets amounts to 3.3% of the fund’s overall assets.

The shareholder withdrawals started before Vinik resigned May 23. Vinik was replaced by Robert Stansky on June 3.