FINANCE

Success Story: Rankings of how well financial companies are doing can be subjective, but it’s tough to argue with a recent coup by Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach.

Pimco was the manager of last year’s five top-performing mutual funds in a category measuring bond portfolios with medium risk, according to a mutual-fund rating survey tracked by Lipper Analytical Services Inc. in New York.

Pimco, a subsidiary of Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach, is one of the nation’s larger investment advisers with more than $41 billion in assets under management. Nearly all the investments are in bonds, and about $7.5 billion of those assets are in mutual funds added by Pimco since its creation in 1987 to work with institutional investors.

“We recognized the need to branch out into the mutual fund business as we saw considerable demand for our services among individuals and institutions who couldn’t meet our separate account minimum of $75 million,” said Brent R. Harris, chairman of the Pimco Funds.

For a small transaction charge, mutual fund shares can be purchased for as little as $1,000 from some discount brokerages such as Charles Schwab & Co. A minimum initial investment of $500,000 is required to purchase mutual fund shares directly from Pimco.

The company doesn’t restrict itself to investing in only certain sectors of the bond market, as many similar funds do. It invests in nearly all sectors, including hedged foreign bonds, futures and options markets. Pimco executives figure that such a strategy gives the company a competitive advantage when it comes to structuring the best bond portfolio.

Three of the five top-performing bond funds--Total Return I, II and III--belong to the Pimco Funds series. The other two--the Pfamco Managed Bond and Income Fund and the Harbor Bond Fund--are run by other companies that have hired Pimco to manage investments.