PIMCO, Loomis Sayles Battle for Top Ranking in Attracting Brand Loyalty Among Pensions

(February 9, 2011) — A survey of 590 institutional investors with more than $20 million in investable assets has shown that two noteworthy bond funds — the Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) and Loomis Sayles — lead the field in garnering brand loyalty from their current clients.

In a newly issued report titled “Institutional Investor Brandscape” from Cogent Research, PIMCO, which runs the world’s biggest bond mutual fund, the PIMCO Total Return Bond Fund, and Loomis Sayles, which runs the Loomis Sayles Bond Fund, competed for top billing on most attributes, including those critical to garnering loyalty: investment performance, investment philosophy and investment team. According to the study, Vanguard outperformed all other managers on fees, while State Street Global Advisors took the lead in satisfying its customers in the area of relationship management.

“As we come off a period where fixed income captured a proportionally larger share of institutional assets, PIMCO and Loomis Sayles stood out as best in class in capturing the loyalty of their clients,” Christy White, Principal at Cogent, stated in a release. “They’re very different firms but both were apparently successful in satisfying their clients’ needs.”

White added that Vanguard is gradually assuming the position as a top-tier institutional player. “Vanguard’s success in moving its brand upstream into the institutional market is yet another sign of changing times where a high quality but low-cost value proposition can generate strong brand momentum.”

The survey was conducted by segmenting data by pension investors (including public, private and Taft-Hartley DB plans) and non-profit investors (including endowments and foundations and tax-exempt organizations).

The full rankings from the study of institutional asset managers are as follows.

1. PIMCO

2. Loomis, Sayles & Company

3. Vanguard

4. Dodge & Cox

5. State Street Global Advisors

6. Wellington Management Company

7. T. Rowe Price

8. Morgan Stanley Investment Management

9. Lord Abbett

10. Western Asset Management Company

11. Northern Trust Investments

12. BlackRock

13. Franklin Templeton Investments

14. UBS Global Asset Management

15. Wells Capital Management

16. Janus Capital

17. Neuberger Berman

18. J.P. Morgan Asset Management

19. MFS Investment Management

20. BNY Mellon Cash Investment Strategies

21. Goldman Sachs Asset Management

22. Capital Guardian Trust Company

23. AllianceBernstein