Janus Funds

As far as Roman mythology and its belief is concerned, the name Janus refers to the two-faced god of beginnings and endings. This image is thought to be an image in relation to the once-maligned Janus Capital Group or Janus funds which is also known as JNS. However, as for a change, it has employed a new chief executive. Not only a new chief executive, it has got a deeper research bench, and a revamped investment team, Jenus is now eying towards a new outset. Well, the important thing is that Janus funds has started its journey with enough encouraging success. To clarify this, we can say in accordance with fund tracker Morningstar that almost 70% of euity funds of Jenus were at the top half of categories over a one-, three-, and five-year period ending in May. This is undoubtedly a proof of its bright start as before that, only 36% of Janus' stock funds landed in the top 50% of their peer groups. Jenus was having a lot of problem at that time.

Denver money manager was founded in the late 1960s and the most important thing is that it had become the poster child of the troubles of industries in some recent years. Well, in the 1990s, it was Janus funds' s high growth style that made it a gorgeous one. But, in spite of all these factors, what happened is that the shareholders went for the exit as it faced a serious drop in its performance in the three-year bear market that followed. In fact, it was not the end as this mass exodus went on to continue when as a result of the mutual fund scandals of 2003 Jenus simply got smacked. Notwithstanding having such a blow, it settled with the Securities & Exchange Commission and other regulators in 2004 for $226 million. People were raising their accusing fingers against it as it allowed big investors to trade in and out of funds simply at the expense of other shareholders. As a result of these, assests fell from more than $330 billion at the top of the market in March, 2000, to $130 billion which, is now up to $160 billion.

Steven Scheid and Gary Black, who took over as CEO in January, 2006 tried heart and soul to uplift the lost image of Janus funds as a boutique growth-stock manager. Black is also the chief investment officer who discharged David Corkins for turning around Janus Mercury. It is needed to be mentioned that ). David Decker of Janus Contrarian and Jonathan Coleman of Janus Enterprise were named co-chief investment officers of the domestic equity group.
Janus has also added seven analysts in the past two years which is also an important step as they cover 1,100 stocks, up from around 500 in 2001. added to this is that manager compensation and fund fees are closely linked with performance.

We should say in this regard that Janus Contrarian can invest in domestic and foreign companies of all sizes and also it ranks in the top 1% of large-cap blend funds over the past one, three, and five years.