Boston-based Fidelity Investments said it will replace Lawrence Rakers as manager of the Fidelity Dividend Growth Fund and Fidelity Advisor Dividend Growth Fund, Bloomberg reported citing regulatory filing. The world's second largest mutual fund firm said Ramona Persaud will assume the position starting January 1. The report said nearly $10 billion is collectively managed by the two dividend growth funds.

Company Spokeswoman Nicole Goodnow said Rakers will be holding a position in the global asset allocation unit of Fidelity. He had managed the funds for five years.

Bloomberg data showed that the $8.7 billion Fidelity Dividend Growth Fund had annualized returns of 12% in the past three years, trailing 91% of funds that are similarly managed, and 31% in the last year, behind 53% of its peers. Meanwhile, the $1.1 billion Fidelity Advisor Dividend Growth Fund also had annualized returns of 12% in the past three years, lagging behind 74% of rivals and 31% in the last year, trailing 51% of its peers.

Persaud also runs the Fidelity Global Equity Income Fund, Fidelity Advisor Global Equity Income Fund as well as the global part of Fidelity Equity Income Fund. She had been with the company since 2003.

In a separate regulatory filing, it was also revealed that a manager change also occurred this month in the $3 billion Fidelity Advisor Capital Development Fund. Harlan Carere was replaced by Matthew Fruhan who runs the $2.2 billion Fidelity Large Cap Stock Fund which had annualized returns of 18% in the past three years. This makes it the leader of 95% of its peers.

The report quoted Goodnow who said in an emailed statement, "We believe that both of these appointments are in the best interest of the shareholders of the funds. Any time we appoint a portfolio manager or managers to a particular fund, we closely examine a number of options to ensure that the structure we're putting in place provides the fund with what we believe will be the potential to post successful returns."