And when these companies do come around to Boston, they presumably have an agenda. But when per-share earnings, per share free cash flow is growing, then I've got a lot of time. ! Dudley S. Danoff, MD, FACS, is the attending urologic surgeon and founder/president of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Tower Urology Group in Los Angeles, California. I'm aware of my positions. And again, it goes back to who you are, and maybe certain money managers have to justify their higher fees by being out there pressing management, but you know, it's a very good point, Christine. Wed like to share more about how we work and what drives our day-to-day business. We've been very lucky that in the last 10 years, these mega-cap companies have been able to continue to grow. Do you attempt to improve what you're not good at? Performance data shown represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. How high are expectations? So, I remember the early days of companies like Costco, and management has experimented with new ideas, but generally speaking, they're close to their customers, they had a great value proposition. Do we decide to buy another company or one of their customers or one of their suppliers? And if you do that every day, for 29 or 30 years over time you gain some expertise and hopefully you improve your batting average and add value to the shareholders. And ideally you're asking good questions to learn as much as possible about an industry, about that particular company, and about that particular executive. Again, we're all a product of where we started in the business. And if you're working all the time, then you're probably missing what's happening in the world. But you and your listeners--you're sophisticated investors. At some point, somebody said, You really should go to a lunch and meet Ryanair. And I said, Really? And they're the low-cost operator in Europe. MD The Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1980. Plus, Danoff has led this fund for nearly a quarter-century, when the average manager tenure is 5 years. This has been a lot of fun. Adam Danoff net worth is $900,000. And being a very large fund has enabled me to have an unbelievably strong research department. Danoff: Well, Jeff, just to make sure that we're level set, I do believe that there is a Fidelity commercial about a letter that I received in 1993 from a new Contrafund investor. William Danoff was born on 1960. So, I find that to really engage one as an investor, you need to engage with managements and then also to engage with analysts and other fund managers you have to be an analyst. You do run a lot of money--I think over $100 billion in assets as of last year across the different strategies that you're responsible for, the largest of which is Contrafund. Total value December 31, 2022 for Contrafund was $457,343, compared to $234,530 for the S&P 500 Index. 1 year: Fidelity Contrafund -28.26%, S&P 500 Index -18.11%. He's a graduate of Harvard University and earned his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. You may have a gain or loss when you sell your shares. Fidelity does have a massive staff of analysts. And that's one of the challenges--we talked earlier about size--that it's harder for me to make a new idea a meaningful bet. Danoff: I think over time, maybe, you grow as an individual and you gain experience. Will runs a number of Fidelity equity strategies, best known of which is Fidelity Contrafund, a mutual fund he has been managing since September 1990. Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process. He's beat the S&P 500 300 basis points. Thank you again, so much, for joining us on The Long View. So, you know, I can monitor what's happening and review what's happening regularly. I think about trying to understand the facts, trying to use my accumulated industry and company knowledge to anticipate the future. Dr. Danoff has also served as President of the Association of Program Directors in Endocrinology and Metabolism (APDEM), and in that role, was a Charter Member of the APDEM/AACE Joint Liaison Education Committee. Bill Danoff Family Background & Career. Transparency is how we protect the integrity of our work and keep empowering investors to achieve their goals and dreams. I mean, 100 basis points on $185 billion is $1.8 billion investment--that's hard to do quickly if you think about it. Find Dr. Danoff's phone number, address, hospital affiliations and more. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? 5847 Education: BA Hunter College, City University of New York, 1976. Mitchell Danoff is 71 years old and was born on 07/24/1951. And I think that all experienced investors have made mistakes and are more aware of when they're approaching thin ice. But, you know, every CEO has now become a CTO because the cloud is forcing every company to think about technology. [1] At US $129 billion, Contrafund is the largest actively managed stock or bond mutual fund run by one person. It's like, oh my gosh, you know, XYZ is going to hurt this company. So, let's call the company together so we can hear the same story, look at the same facts together, and then decide what the challenges might be facing the company going forward. All Rights Reserved. And that can be subtle, and experience helps there. How we use your information depends on the product and service that you use and your relationship with us. But this is what we do, and we try to do the best we can. For me, it's the ability to make big bets it's harder. And if I like the management team, and I'm confident that they're going to be able to grow, and I like what they're doing. That includes . But capacity--you know, I'm my degree of difficulty is harder than a smaller fund. So, the bar has risen for the Contrafund. William Danoff, better known by her family name William Danoff, is a popular American Financial professional. They made some mistakes and learned from their mistakes. Ptak: And so does that tend to be a function of kind of how you would assess opportunity costs associated with entering into a new idea? WATCH: Will Danoff, who as manager of Fidelity's Contrafund has beaten the S&P 500 for three decades, makes the case for active . Will. The subject line of the email you send will be "Fidelity.com: ", Will is dedicated to the long-term benefits of active management. And sometimes it's just a matter of, Hey, you know, you haven't been to Boston in a couple of years. 14. Prior to becoming a portfolio manager, Will served as a retail analyst at Fidelity and for a time as assistant portfolio manager at Fidelity Magellan. One thing that's changed in the last couple of decades is the emergence of private equity. And then two weeks later a packet would arrive. Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. And then hopefully, in six or nine months, we'll be able to follow up and say, How's it going? or at the end of the year, say, how did you do and what else are you going to change?, Thats just the way life is--you got to keep moving forward, and do the best you can, but I personally like to interact with management teams, and I owe it to my own shareholders to say every day I'm coming to work, I'm looking for new ideas. But do you wait for good phase 2 data? The long view has to be that equities are going to perform better than bonds for the foreseeable future. But when it comes to some of the tech and the biotech, I'm treading more lightly. And I think that probably partly explains why I haven't been as active on social media. Seems like, maybe that's a conscious choice you've made in how it is you're going to spend your time and focus as a portfolio manager. But the real key is not just to hear the story but to follow up. Sometimes William goes by various nicknames including William A Danoff and Will Danoff. Why haven't you done those things? Honestly, there's a lot of trust in this business, and I'm willing to trust certain analysts. But historically, I have found that if you can identify people that you trust, that are extremely knowledgeable about their industry and enthusiastic about their company, and in some cases, ideally, are founders of the companyand, therefore, the company is an expression of who they are and what they are and they really want to grow the company--then that's the perfect situation, especially if it's a good business and they have a differentiated product offering and a great value proposition. And if it is, I tend to go to a meeting or two--probably go to more meetings--because I say maybe I'll learn something by going to a meeting. You think about if you were an employee at a company like that. The chart above illustrates the performance of a hypothetical $10,000 investment made in the fund and a benchmark during managers tenure. I'm considering fcntx- fidelity contra fund- .82 ER. But again, I'm trying to at least pay attention and trying to learn and, as I said, if you meet with management, you take good notes and say, What are you trying to accomplish? And then you go back after a year and say, What have you accomplished? I mean, when I was an analyst, I can remember calling companies after they reported and pleading with somebody in the CFOs office to either read me the details of the income statement and balance sheet, or then to fax me the information quickly, but I do remember part of the job was to call the company and ask for a packet. And I think 150,000 people went to the conference over a week in San Francisco, and I was just blown away by the enthusiasm of the employees and the customers, and that can be priceless in terms of your appreciation of the strength of a franchise. You can do it, but that's going to take some time. Ptak: If I may, I wanted to ask quickly about portfolio construction--a couple of aspects of it. Class: Magnoliopsida. I tend not to do well when we have to make a quick pivot. So, I said, Well, what's your strategy to grow your company in the next three to five years?, And I think that's a legitimate question to ask. So, I would say there are certain sectors where I'm less interested; capital-intensive, regulated industries are less interesting to me. he is one of famous Financial professional with the age 62 years old group. I tend not to do well in what I call v bottom industries, like in semiconductors, where things are really bad and then all of a sudden the light changes and all of a sudden things are really good and things have bottomed and are getting better. That has been a change over the last couple of years. I mean, when Facebook went public, they were--and Google, they were--both nicely profitable, growing companies. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. Through the crises, Danoff has focused on companies led by founders or engaged management that can double earnings over five years, on the theory that stock prices will follow. Will Danoff, the stock picker behind the $100-billion (U.S.) Fidelity Contrafund - the world's largest actively managed fund run by one person - is now accessible to Canadian investors. So says Will Danoff, manager of Fidelity Investments' $108 billion Contrafund, the biggest actively managed stock or bond mutual fund run by one person. The older mind is not as nimble as the younger mind. He runs Fidelity's Contrafund. Danoff received 46,154 Alibaba shares that cost $3,432, or 7 cents apiece, according to an annual report filed by his family's private charitable foundation. I'd say part of the wisdom of experience is to know where your circle of competence begins and ends. During his nearly 30-year tenure, the Fidelity Contrafund has outperformed the S&P 500 in 100% of rolling 10-year time periods. So therefore, you are trusting management teams and experts in certain industries to guide you, and hopefully I'll understand the financial ramifications if the company is successful, and I can make an assessment if I think the scientists or the technologists are going to be able to execute on their plan, and every industry is a little cyclical. I am trying to reduce my turnover. But again, its personality in what you do, and Peter Lynch talks about the notion of a poker game. Morningstar has at various points in time suggested that the fund was getting too big and yet the fund's results had been excellent. And, as you know, there were constraints on when you can book and only one class and no free food and all that stuff. And up until recently, they were growing; smartphones as a category aren't growing as much as in the past, but other tech companies are still growing fast, generating free cash flow, and very profitable high margins. Dr. Dudley S. Danoff is a Urologist in Los Angeles, CA. But, you know, what we've all learned is we want to make sure that the management team is particularly special. Taffy Nivert. And I'd say try and stay optimistic. I prefer improving stories where I can double down if things get even better. Verify your identity, personalize the content you receive, or create and administer your account. Will Danoff, manager of the $230 billion Fidelity Contrafund, told Bloomberg that there's a "demographic issue" for mutual funds: Gen Z is not . No patient rating & comments. Bill Danoff In 1976, using Fat City as the core, Bill added Jon Carroll and Margot Chapman to form the Starland Vocal Band, which quickly gained national fame with the monster hit, "Afternoon Delight". So, I look at the fund. Please see additional standard performance information. And, again, paying attention and monitoring out-of-favor groups and trying to identify I can remember when everyone hated the airline industry. 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