As we continue our series on mutual fund families, we're going to discuss Janus Mutual Funds. As we've done before, we'll first comment on the overall family of funds offered. Next, we will talk about the fee structure of Janus, including loads as well as fund expenses. Finally, we'll finish up with a listing of their top rated funds.
Janus Family of Funds
Janus Capital Group is the holding company for Janus Capital Management LLC, which is one of the largest equity managers in the United States. Based in Denver, Colorado the firm manages roughly $141 billion in mutual funds on behalf of investors as of October 2019. The focus at Janus is on growth, core, and international mutual funds. From this focus, Janus extends their reach into balanced, fixed income, and money market funds.
Janus offers a full line of individual investor services. This includes Traditional and Roth IRAs as well as direct rollover services for IRA and 401(k) plans. The Janus family of funds includes about 40 mutual funds along with bond funds and money market funds.
Fee Structure and Returns
According to Morningstar, the Janus expense ratios run from Below Average for domestic and international stock funds to an Average rating for their taxable bond fund. The average annual fee charged on a domestic stock fund is just 1.00%. Similar to Fidelity Mutual Funds, the vast majority, 60.31%, of Janus mutual funds are invested in domestic stocks. (October 2019)
Investors can open an account with Janus with a minimum investment as low as $2,500. In addition, 92.97% of the funds offered are no-load mutual funds . This is an important factor when buying a mutual fund, since the payment of loads can significantly impact the total return on investment. As of October 2019, the average return on Janus mutual funds is 8.04% over the last five years.
Top Rated Janus Mutual Funds
Unlike some of the other families of funds, Janus does not have a cornerstone mutual fund such as Fidelity's Magellan. However, there are some funds within the family that are standout performers. The top rated Janus mutual funds over the past five years include:
Janus Henderson Small Cap Value L (JSIVX)
Assets: $3.4 million
Category: US Fund Small Value
Specialty: None
Top Three Holdings: UniFirst Corp, The Hanover Insurance Group Inc, Cedar Fair LP
Load: None
Minimum Investment: $250,000
Expense Ratio: 1.02%
5-Year Average Return: 9.31%
Janus Henderson VIT Forty Instl (JACAX)
Assets: $844.9 million
Category: Large Growth
Specialty: None
Top Three Holdings: Microsoft Corp, Mastercard Inc, Amazon.com, Inc.
Load: None
Minimum Investment: $0
Expense Ratio: 0.71%
5-Year Average Return: 16.75%
Janus Henderson VIT Enterprise Portfolio Institutional (JAAGX)
Assets: $1.5 billion
Category: Mid Growth
Specialty: None
Top Three Holdings: Global Payments Inc, NICE Ltd ADR, Constellation Software
Load: None
Minimum Investment: $0
Expense Ratio: 0.72%
5-Year Average Return: 16.28%