Janus Earnings Up 21% in Second Quarter

Janus Capital said difficult market conditions caused its second-quarter to miss Wall Street expectations, as profits and assets under management declined.

The Denver company said its net income was up 21% compared with last year's second quarter, to $31.1 million, but down 11.8% compared with the first quarter of 2006. Earnings per share were 15 cents, one cent below the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Gary Black, Janus' chief executive officer, said during its earnings conference call that inflows into equity funds have fallen since February and that firms that rely on retail distribution were hurt the most when outflows began in June. He said he expects Janus to report more fund flows for the month of July.

"It was a tough quarter," Black said. "The headwinds on investment companies have picked up. The market is down sharply since mid-May and value has begun to outperform growth."

Janus said assets under management were $153.4 billion at the end of June, down 17.7% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 11.7%, to $233.1 million, but assets under management were down 2.97% since the end of March.

Black said the performance of Janus' funds has picked up. Fifty-seven percent of its funds have a four- or five-star Morningstar rating (the average is 32%), but "flows have not responded as our performance has improved," he said.