Assets in Dodge & Cox's stock and bond funds fell 47 percent to $79.4 billion in the year ended January 31, Bloomberg reports, citing data from Financial Research Corp. That's the biggest drop among the 20 largest U.S. fund firms.

Legg Mason saw the second largest decline, with fund assets falling 45 percent to $68.9 billion. Others that saw big drops were Van Kampen Investments, whose assets fell 43 percent to $43.2 billion; OppenheimerFunds, down 41 percent to $92.4 billion; Janus Capital Group, down 41 percent to $54.6 billion; Columbia Management, down 39 percent to $77.2 billion and Fidelity Investments, down 39 percent to $525.4 billion.

Dodge & Cox's biggest fund, Dodge & Cox Stock Fund, fell 55 percent in the 12 months ended March 5, according to Bloomberg data. Fueling the fall were bets on financial stocks.

“The performance of several of the fund’s holdings in the financials sector was breathtakingly bad," Bloomberg quotes Dodge & Cox chairman John Gunn and president Kenneth Olivier as stating in the February 13 annual report to the $32.7 billion fund's shareholders.

Bloomberg also notes that investors pulled $12.2 billion from Dodge & Cox funds last year, pointing to Morningstar data.

“While the funds did experience net outflows during the year, the outflows were manageable and represented a small percentage of the funds’ overall asset base," Dodge & Cox spokesman Steve Gorskin told Bloomberg.  

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