In a surprise twist among winners of the Lipper Fund Awards 2012 announced Thursday night in New York, PIMCO won the prize for best large company equity fund.
Usually, PIMCO and star manager Bill Gross are known for their reputation in the world of fixed-income investing and their $250 billion-plus Total Return Fund, which did not even get a mention on Lipper’s long list of U.S. fund award winners. PIMCO did, however, receive numerous mentions on the list for both stock and bond funds.
Other big winners on Thursday included best overall large fund family Nuveen Fund Advisors and best overall small fund family GuideStone Funds. The best small-company equity fund winner was Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management.
Fixed-income winners were Thornbug Investment Management for large company and M&I Investment Management for small company. Mixed asset winners were large company John Hancock Group and small company Delaware Management.