In general, fund analysts don't hold as much power as portfolio managers, with managers often ignoring analysts' recommendations. That's not the case at three Boston fund firms, which the Wall Street Journal's Jennifer Levitz featured in the Saturday issue of the paper. At Putnam, Fidelity and MFS, "analysts are doing more, picking stocks themselves or wielding power to steer managers from certain investments," Levitz noted.

Putnam in the past eight months rolled out six analyst-run global sector funds.

For its part, Fidelity is four years into a five-year plan to boost internal research, and company officials say the evidence of success is the improved performance of Fidelity's Select Portfolios. In the past, Fidelity moved analysts from sector to sector but now, it has created a "career analyst" track.

Over at MFS, fund managers choose from a pool of stocks given a "buy" or "hold" ranking by analysts. 

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