The Janus family of mutual funds is divided into four categories including 1) Asset allocation funds, 2) Equity funds, 3) Bond funds and 4) Money market funds. A complete list of these funds can be viewed on the janus.com website. The company managing these funds is called Janus Capital Group (JNS) and is also a financial services company.
The Janus organization has been involved with financial services and asset management for much of the time in which the financial markets have evolved and according to the company itself, takes a strong research and risk management approach to its asset management strategy. More specifically, the Janus Capital Group has been in existence since the late 1960’s and has a information focused, strategic approach to asset management as outlined by the company itself.
The Janus funds:
Many Janus funds are ranked above average or higher by the Morningstar rating service and some of these funds have never seen a negative average annual return. For example, the following two funds are not only ranked with 5 stars by Morningstar, but have also had consistently positive investment returns (janus.com)
• Janus Flexible Bond Fund (JAFIX) : 7.35% average fund life return
• Janus Short-Term Bond Fund (JASBX) 4.73% average fund life return
According to Morningstar.com, the Janus fund family has an average fund expense ratio of 1.06-1.26 i.e. between 1.06%-1.26% depending on the type i.e. bond funds, equity funds etc. There are approximately 59 Janus funds on the market with a variety of concentration areas such as contrarian funds, international funds, growth funds and more.
More than two thirds of Janus’ managed assets are in domestic investments and the majority of the funds are no load despite its expense ratio(s). Minimum investment amounts do apply to Janus funds when made directly through the firm. Moreover, Morningstar reports that over 85% of Janus’ managed assets are invested in equities with the remainder in bonds, cash and other financial instruments.
There are many fund families to choose from when selecting mutual funds. For this reason, researching the various options and deriving an investment plan may be a good idea prior to purchasing mutual funds of any kind.
The Janus fund family as a whole is also given high ratings by Morningstar, however it is also important to note mutual funds may only meet specific investment objectives regardless of capacity. In other words, since mutual funds are managed funds they give less control to the investor but may also be a good place to hedge risk such as in the case of Janus Flexible Bond Fund (JAFIX).
Janus management:
The Asset management company overseeing Janus funds has capitalization of over $1.5 billion dollars and a .04 cent per share annual dividend distribution. (finance.yahoo.com) Like many mutual fund/asset managers, 2008 was a particularly brutal year to investments of all kinds with the exception of bonds and other safe investment classes.
The company has had several years yield a positive annual revenue and income despite a difficult economic environment and has experienced a net negative cash flow i.e. higher cash outflow for the years 2007 and 2008. Janus Capital Management’s “Corporate Governance Quotient” is near the 41st percentile for high ranked companies according to yahoo finance, and the company’s headquarter is in Denver, Colorado.
Sources:
1. https://ww4.janus.com/Janus/Retail/StaticPage?jsp=jsp/Funds/OurFundsLanding.jsp
2. http://ir.janus.com/?WT.mc_id=6005
3. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=jns
4. http://quicktake.morningstar.com/FundFamily/Snapshot.asp?Country=USA&Symbol=10422
5. http://quicktake.morningstar.com/FundFamily/fundfamilylist.asp?Country=USA&Symbol=10422