Snowing here too.
From Morningstar:
A Sneak Peek at Janus Fund 2
by Christine Benz | 09:38 AM | 01-19-01 | E-mail Article to a Friend
Manager John Schreiber says Janus Fund 2 JTWOX will have some overlap with the flagship Janus Fund JANSX, but it won't be a clone.
Schreiber estimates that Janus 2, which launched at the end of 2000, has about 35% portfolio overlap with Janus Fund. He expects the fund to be similar to Janus Fund in terms of its risk/reward profile, noting that he and Janus Fund manager Blaine Rollins share a preference for reasonably valued blue chips. (What's "reasonably valued" is subjective, however; Janus Fund's price multiples land it squarely in Morningstar's large-growth category.)
Schreiber served as assistant portfolio manager with Rollins on Janus Equity-Income JAEIX and Janus Balanced JABAX before both were promoted to work on the flagship in early 2000. Rollins is the lead portfolio manager on Janus Fund, while Schreiber will continue to serve as assistant portfolio manager there.
Despite the new fund's similarities with its forebear, Schreiber says that he intends to take advantage of Janus 2's still-small asset base to dive into small- and mid-cap names in which Janus Fund, with its $39 billion in assets, can no longer take meaningful positions.
He also intends to run a more-concentrated portfolio than Janus Fund. He expects that the portfolio will typically have 40 to 60 holdings, with 40% to 45% of its assets in the top-10 names. (Janus Fund had 98 holdings as of its most recently available portfolio, with 40% of its assets in its top-10 issues.)
Schreiber declined to discuss specific holdings in the new fund before they are publicly available, but acknowledged that the fund's launch date, coming after a steep sell-off in Nasdaq, was fortuitous. For the year to date through January 17 the fund had gained 6.5%, according to figures provided by Janus.
AOL Time Warner AOL may well be one of the key drivers of that big early-year gain. Schreiber has served as Janus' chief analyst on the companies, and says that he remains bullish on the combination. The stock has enjoyed a big runup thus far in 2000.
Schreiber says he believes the "annuity-like" revenue stream from AOL Time Warner's online subscriber base should help offset any potential weakness in the company's advertising revenues. He also argues that the company is still trading at an attractive multiple relative to its free-cash-flow growth.
Like most Janus managers, Schreiber says he'll focus on companies with strong revenue growth that enjoy expanding margins and top-quality management. He points out that he will be somewhat more valuation conscious than some other managers in the Janus lineup, however, and will attempt to stay better diversified across sectors than aggressive funds like Janus Twenty JAVLX and Mercury JAMRX.
Additionally, Schreiber says he puts a big emphasis on balance-sheet analysis, believing that improving trends in a company's return on invested capital and free cash-flow generation can help get him into a stock before it pops up on other growth investors' radar. |
