Legg Mason to cut 250 jobs in Baltimore; posts 4Q profit Read more: Legg Mason to cut 250 jobs in Baltimore; posts 4Q profit - Baltimore Business Jou

Employees were informed about the new round of job cuts on Monday and Fetting said he spoke with Gov. Martin O’Malley, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake and Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith.

“It is always saddening to hear that one of our major employers is shedding jobs in this difficult economic environment,” Rawlings-Blake spokesman Ryan O'Doherty said.

David Iannucci, director of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development, said: “It is always disappointing to lose any jobs, especially from a financial services leader like Legg Mason.”

The financial services sector is one of the county’s targeted industries, he said.

However, “the good news is when it comes to the recession the county is doing better than most in digging its way out of it,” he said. “We will work immediately to offer them services and ease their transition,” Iannucci said.

Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley, said despite the layoffs Baltimore's financial services industry remains strong and pointed to Morgan Stanley's (NYSE: MS) expansion into Harbor Point and a profitable first quarter for T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW).

Legg Mason loses $1.5B in 4Q

Baltimore's Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) lost a staggering $10.55 per share in the quarter ended Dec. 31, while analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial on average had expected a loss of $4.02 per share. In the same quarter a year ago, Legg earned $155 million, or $1.07 per share. Revenue slumped by 39 percent from a year ago to $720 billion.

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http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2009/01/26/daily21.html

Legg Mason's Miller: "Bottom's been made" in stocks

(Reuters) - Legg Mason's star stock-fund manager Bill Miller said on Wednesday the "bottom has been made" in U.S. equities and that the Federal Reserve should consider purchasing stocks and junk bonds to pull the United States out of the financial crisis.

Speaking at Legg Mason's annual luncheon for media, Miller said that all long-term investors believe that stocks today are cheap.

Miller told Reuters on the sidelines that his funds "performed far worse than I would've predicted we would" this year.

For the year, Miller's flagship Value Trust (LMVTX) fund was down 59.7 percent as of Tuesday, compared to a 41 percent decline in the reinvested returns of the S&P 500 index, according to Lipper Inc., a unit of Thomson Reuters.

Performance over the year-to-date, one-, three- and five-year periods for Value Trust put it at the bottom of the barrel among its peers, Lipper data shows.