Is Janus Henderson Enterprise Institutional (JAAGX) A Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

If you've been stuck searching for Mid Cap Growth funds, consider Janus Henderson Enterprise Institutional JAAGX as a possibility. JAAGX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

JAAGX is part of the Mid Cap Growth section, a segment that boasts a wide array of possible selections. While Mid Cap Growth mutual funds choose companies with a stock market valuation between $2 billion and $10 billion, stocks in these funds are also expected to show broad considerable growth opportunities for investors compared to their peers. To be considered a growth stock, companies must consistently report impressive sales and/or earnings growth.

History of Fund/Manager

Janus Fund is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of JAAGX. The Janus Henderson Enterprise Institutional made its debut in September of 1993 and JAAGX has managed to accumulate roughly $655.65 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Brian Demain is the fund's current manager and has held that role since November of 2007.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 17.42%, and is in the top third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 16.59%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.

When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 11.50%, the standard deviation of JAAGX over the past three years is 10.53%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 9.69% compared to the category average of 11.48%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. JAAGX lost 52.6% in the most recent bear market and underperformed its peer group by 1.48%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment.

Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.89, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 3.01, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, JAAGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.77% compared to the category average of 1.20%. JAAGX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $0, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Janus Henderson Enterprise Institutional has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Janus Henderson Enterprise Institutional looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on JAAGX in the Mid Cap Growth category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well for additional information. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.