Federated Investors has hired a new portfolio manager to oversee its top-selling mutual fund through bank trust departments.
The Pittsburgh-based company, which manages $79.2 billion in fund assets, has named Scott B. Schermerhorn senior portfolio manager of Federated Stock Trust Fund, which invests for growth and income.
Mr. Schermerhorn's appointment is the latest in a string of shifts among Federated portfolio managers prompted by the company's quest to add new equity funds to its menu, said J. Thomas Madden, executive vice president in charge of domestic equity investing.
"Our clients told us they wanted global international money management, and they told us if we wanted to do more business in equity funds we needed a fuller lineup," Mr. Madden said.
Federated, a leading seller of funds through bank trust departments, manages only $5.7 billion in stock funds.
In November, the company created a domestic small-cap fund, and promoted senior analyst Aash Shah to manage it. And last spring, Federated established a unit in New York to manage money internationally.
Mr. Schermerhorn, 35, joined Federated from J.W. Seligman & Co., a New York money management firm. A senior investment officer, Mr. Schermerhorn helped to run growth and income funds and separate institutional assets.
At Federated, he replaced an assistant portfolio manager of the Stock Trust Fund, Frederick Plautz, who left about a year ago. Tim Keefe, another assistant manager of the fund, retains his position.
The Federated Stock Trust Fund, founded in 1982, manages $775 million in assets.
Don't expect the fund to change its conservative style of blue-chip stock picking, said Don Phillips, president of Morningstar Inc., which tracks portfolio performance.
The fund's five-year return ranks in the top 15% of the 551 funds in its category, Mr. Phillips said. "It's a fund a lot of people count on for its consistency," he said.
