Fidelity employees who hold stock in the company will see their shares gain in value by $85.99 for 2008, The Boston Globe reports. The increase is 18 percent, or $19, lower than the $105 the company set for 2007.

The additional value determines the amount shareholders will receive in payouts for 2008 and is a key component of the firm's pay structure.

Speaking to The Globe's Ross Kerber outside Fidelity's annual meeting at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston on Monday, company spokeswoman Anne Crowley said the additional value for 2008 was in line with the average additional share value of $87.20 this decade.

"You should view it as a very healthy increase," Crowley said of the 2008 number.

Like its peers in the industry, Fidelity is feeling the pain from the market downturn and has implemented cost-reduction measures including layoffs.

"We took a number of steps throughout last year that helped us get ahead of circumstances," Crowley said.

At Fidelity, 51 percent of the firm's voting stock is held by employees and the rest is controlled by the Johnson family.

Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Service analyst Matthew Knoll, who follows Fidelity, said he expects the firm to have "modestly lower" revenue and earnings for 2008 compared to the year before. In 2007, Fidelity posted a pre-tax income of $2.2 billion on revenue of $14.9 billion. 

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