Janus managers are shoring up their funds, and the firm has begun to show signs of recovery from the punishing outflows the tech-focused company faced with the burst of the Internet bubble, and fines related to regulatory actions. The $9.8 billion Denver-based Janus Twenty Fund, which lost 69% of its value between March 2000 and Oct. 9, 2002 compared to 47.37% for the S&P 500, had recovered 17.75% as of Jan. 3, compared to 17.35% for the S&P, according to Investor’s Business Daily. During 2006 alone, the fund, managed by Scott Schoelzel, gained 12.3%, while other large-caps gained only 5.6% on average, according to data from Chicago-based research company Morningstar. Schoelzel has trimmed positions in energy, a sector he says has “played itself out.” He recently sold Occidental Petroleum, British Petroleum and Exxon. Oil companies, he said, will grow not through exploration, but acquisition, he said. The manager has also shed some bigger large caps for ones with smaller market capitalization values, which, he said, offer greater overall growth potential. Agricultural stocks, especially companies that sell hearty seeds in a globally drought-ridden environment, have also served the fund well. Likewise Goldman Sachs, which the fund has owned since its 1999 initial public offering, and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, have both done well, as Goldman had a record-breaking year, and RIM settles patent challenges in court. Meanwhile, over on the east coast, Janus’ Palm Beach, Fla.-based INTECH unit has introduced international stocks in its risk-managed portfolios, according to MarketWatch. Janus owns an 82.5% stake in the company, which sells mostly to institutional investors, and the subsidiary serves as a bright spot in an otherwise grim few years for the firm. INTECH founder Robert Fernholz described the company’s investment strategy as “enhanced indexing.” INTECH offers a retail fund, but Janus has not yet decided whether to launch a retail version of the new internationally diverse strategy, according to company spokeswoman Shelly Peterson. Some analysts suggest that as institutional investors turn to active managers in the hunt for alpha, INTECH’s inflows will be stifled. Janus Chief Executive Gary Black said that ebbs and flows in the market are inevitable, but his model will persevere. “Performance is very strong on a long-term basis,” he said. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.
