A favorite fund of many others and of mine is the Janus Mercury Fund
(1-800-525-8983), managed by Warren Lammert since its inception in
1993. Lammert has the same freedom Peter Lynch had at Magellan: He
can invest in pretty much anything he wants, often sticking as much as 30
percent of his fund in overseas stocks. Currently, U.S. companies make up
about 88 percent of his holdings, because "today I'm finding more ideas in
the U.S." than anywhere else, he said.
In the five-year period ended Friday, Mercury delivered an annualized
return of 34.2 percent, a superior performance, while charging no
front-end load and managing with a total expense ratio of less than 1
percent a year. Lammert had a bit less than a third of his fund in technology
stocks as of May, with another 28 percent or so in consumer cyclicals.
This is comforting, since other funds with returns similar to Janus Mercury's
are much more heavily weighted in tech stocks. Like many managers,
Lammert's top holding at most recent reporting was America Online Inc.
(AOL), followed by Time Warner Inc. (TWX). |
