Top 2021 Stock Picker Wins With Semiconductors
Smart weighting calls and confidence in a Covid-hobbled industry pushed Fidelity’s Adam Benjamin to the head of the class of successful money managers.
Powering gadgets and portfolios.
Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/BloombergThe best stock picker of 2021 scored a rare trifecta of money management. He outperformed not only his specialist peers, but exceeded the stock-market returns of the top two industries last year. And he did it by betting on a sagging semiconductor industry whose shortages contributed to the worst supply chain woes in memory.
He is Adam Benjamin, whose Fidelity Select Semiconductors Portfolio earned 59.2%, No. 1 among 430 U.S.-based mutual funds or exchange-traded funds investing at least $5 billion over three years. Benjamin turns 51 on April 15 and had two decades of experience following computer chips when he took over the Boston-based Fidelity Investments Inc.'s Select Semiconductors in 2020, just in time to profit from Covid-19's disruptions.