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Finance

Unicorn Volatility: Fidelity Marks Up Shares of Dropbox and Snapchat

By
Dan Primack
Dan Primack
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By
Dan Primack
Dan Primack
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November 30, 2015, 9:43 PM ET
Illustration by Jeremy Enecio for Fortune

Fidelity Investments got a lot of attention earlier this month for marking down the values of its shares in a number of well-known, privately-held startups. But even before those stories appeared, the Boston-based mutual fund manager had brightened on several of its more notable holdings, including prior markdown subjects like Dropbox and Snapchat.

Fidelity publishes monthly portfolio holding listings on a one-month lag, meaning that most of the recent articles were based on data through the end of September. On Monday, however, Fortune reviewed data through the end of October for both the $20.8 billion Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund and the $40 billion Fidelity Growth Company Fund.

It found that several of the more severe September markdowns had been reversed, albeit not always to the point of making Fidelity whole (on paper) for its original investment.

Mobile messaging and media company Snapchat, for example, saw Fidelity mark up the value of its Series F shares by 14.65% between the end of September and the end of October. It’s a strong bump, but still puts Fidelity in the red (again, on paper) by 14.43%. Shares in file-sharing and storage company Dropbox appreciated by 4.66% during the month, which puts them 45.8% over cost, but still nearly 16% below Fidelity’s carrying value at the end of May.

Other gainers in October included

  • Gensight Biologics: Up 61.7% for the month, 62.7% over cost.
  • Nutanix: Up 22.73% for the month, 31.84% over cost.
  • Roku (multiple share classes): Up around 34% up for the month. Series F up 67.86% over cost. Series G up 17% over cost.
  • Zenefits: Up 2.05% for the month, 46.94% below cost.

The big loser was Blue Bottle Coffee, which saw the carrying value of its Series C shares slashed by 28.7% during the month — putting it a whopping 59.6% below what Fidelity paid for the shares just over five months ago. Also taking a major hit was Delphix, a maker of big data management software that was marked down 42.93% during the month.

Fidelity does not comment on the specifics its monthly valuations, except to say that it uses an internal Fair Value Committee that determines the appropriate price for each security. The monthly reports also do not reveal share counts, so it is possible that the valuations have been affected by share sales or transfers between Fidelity funds, although such moves are rarely, if ever, executed.

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