SHORT INTERESTS: TIPS, TRENDS, OBSERVATIONS

Move over, Jerry Seinfeld

If Edward C. “Ned” Johnson isn’t an American Express card holder already, he ought to be. Fidelity Management & Research Co., which he heads, notified the Securities and Exchange Commission last week that at yearend it owned 10% of American Express Co., or 46.5 million shares, in an undisclosed number of mutual funds. In the filing, Boston-based Fidelity maintains the stock was acquired in the “ordinary course of business” and not as part of a plan to take control of Amex. Fidelity routinely amasses large stakes — especially small- and mid-caps — but accumulating 10% of Amex is no small feat. At presstime, Amex was trading around 87?; the stock’s 12- month high is 91?.

Good is stronger than evil

Nixing sin stocks from the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index paid off in 1997. The Domini 400 Social index, published by Kinder (rhymes with cinder) Lydenberg Domini & Co. in Cambridge, Mass., outpaced the index by 5.03 percentage points in 1997, a feat matched by precious few. This is the third year in a row that the index — which starts with the 500 but screens out 100 ranging from tobacco, alcohol and weapons manufacturers to gambling and nuclear power firms — trounced the S&P. Gloats Amy L. Domini, the index’s creator: “The burden of proof on the cost issue has shifted to social investing’s opponents.”

Cash ain’t trash

Cash has become a dirty word in finance, but value manager Robert Rodriguez is holding on to his greenbacks.”The likelihood is that if stocks, in general, return 5% to 7% and short-term liquidity returns 4% to 5%, then the penalty for holding liquidity will be considerably less vs. what has occurred over the last 10 to 15 years,” the chief investment officer of First Pacific Advisors tells sister publication Pensions & Investments. His position is even more surprising considering the Los Angeles firm’s equity account with the $16.8 billion State of Connecticut Trust Fund is “on watch” because of its nea
rly 30% cash stake. But Mr. Rodriguez says his portfolio typically was 400 basis points ahead of the Russell 2500 benchmark.

How to grill a planner

The Denver-based Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards is helping consumers sharpen their interviewing skills with a free eight-page brochure called “10 Questions to Ask When Choosing A Financial Planner.” The guide, available on the web at http: www.cfp-board.org, even urges consumers to ask for the planners’ form ADV and includes useful telephone numbers.