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Is Janus Henderson Research D (JNRFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, a potential starting could be Janus Henderson Research D (JNRFX - Free Report) . JNRFX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

JNRFX is a part of the Janus Fund family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. The Janus Henderson Research D made its debut in May of 1993 and JNRFX has managed to accumulate roughly $11.72 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Matthew Peron who has been in charge of the fund since April of 2020.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 10.99%, and it sits in the middle 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 9.82%, which places it in the middle 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. JNRFX's standard deviation over the past three years is 21.45% compared to the category average of 18%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 21.03% compared to the category average of 15.85%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.09, which means it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -0.88, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is mostly on equities that are traded in the United States.

The mutual fund currently has 96.82% of its holdings in stocks, with an average market capitalization of $341.36 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  • Technology
  • Industrial Cyclical
With turnover at about 32%, this fund makes fewer trades than the average comparable fund.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, JNRFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.64% compared to the category average of 0.99%. From a cost perspective, JNRFX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, and each subsequent investment should be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Janus Henderson Research D ( JNRFX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Janus Henderson Research D ( JNRFX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on JNRFXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.


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