Your Mutual Fund Hates You

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz | More Articles
September 5, 2008 | Comments (2)

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It's no fun being a fund manager these days.

Shares of Janus Capital Group (NYSE: JNS ) opened lower today, after J.P. Morgan cut its near-term earnings outlook on the company.

It's not alone in Wall Street's solitary confinement. Legg Mason (NYSE: LM ) surrendered 10% of its value yesterday after a Credit Suisse downgrade. At least the Legg Mason takedown makes sense. The company posted a sharp quarterly loss last month, as a result of a charge to help support three of its money market funds.

Legg Mason is also suffering from the diminishing shine of Bill Miller. The legendary fund manager was a rock star after leading Legg Mason Value Trust (FUND: LMVTX ) to beat the market in 15 consecutive years through 2005. However, the fund has badly underperformed in each of the past three years. Barring a fourth-quarter miracle, fund defections will continue once shareowners get their 2008 statements. The fund has lost 31% of its value year-to-date. It's been a bad market, but obviously not that bad. Ouch!

Janus has been more fortunate on the performance front, so why the grim outlook? Well, Janus is a stock-centric fund family. It is not as well diversified into fixed income funds like Eaton Vance (NYSE: EV ) , Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN ) , or Vanguard. The fear here is that if the global stock markets continue to weaken, that stock-centric fund operators will be the hardest hit.

That may be bad news for firms like Janus and T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW ) , but I don't agree. Fund families -- especially growth-oriented ones like Janus that swing for the fences -- have already taken their lumps. The right growth funds have also avoided value traps in banking and homebuilders, keying in on sectors like technology and alternative energy that continue to grow.

Different funds thrive in different markets, explaining why the Champion Funds newsletter recommendations span across all fund types. It may be too late to pile on the venom on growth.

Today's volatile market may not seem conducive to plunging headfirst into an aggressive growth fund, but aren't they the ones that will bounce back the strongest when the economy does bounce back?

I'm sorry J.P. Morgan, but you're wrong about Janus.

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz always owns a mutual fund or two, even in a portfolio of stocks. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Report this Comment On September 05, 2008, at 6:14 PM, bonez11111111111 wrote:

LMVTX has lost 31% I don't think so. It was recently at almost $79 and now it's at about $40, so hasn't it lost more like 48%?
Report this Comment On September 06, 2008, at 8:07 PM, TMFBreakerRick wrote:

bonez, LMVTX may have been at nearly $79 last summer, but it closed out 2007 -- and hence began 2008 -- at $57.91. The performance cited is year-to-date in the article.

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