Miriam Sjoblom: PIMCO announced that it hired a new CEO this week. Manny Roman, who is currently the CEO at alternatives firm Man Group, will be taking the role Nov. 1 from Doug Hodge, the current CEO at PIMCO. Hodge's replacement came as a bit of a surprise, but Manny does have some skills that we think fit in with the direction PIMCO is trying to go. At Man Group he was known for stabilizing that business and diversifying it, whereas PIMCO has suffered lately from having sizable outflows in recent years from it's flagship Total Return Strategy.
Manny also has experience making a number of acquisitions while at Man Group. That's not historically a strategy that PIMCO has followed, so it will be interesting to see if he takes the firm in that direction.
It's going to take some time to see how these changes impact PIMCO's strategy and investment culture. For now, we don't see this having an impact on PIMCO's investment capabilities in the near term. And we're not changing any of our Morningstar Analyst Ratings on PIMCO's funds or the parent, which is currently rated Neutral.