Moving a $10 billion mutual fund at high speeds isn’t easy, but Janus Twenty portfolio manager Scott Schoelzel pulled it off with a market-beating 6.4 percent return in the second quarter.
Janus Twenty, the top ranked large-cap growth fund in the country in 2004, stumbled early in the year.
But it is back in the running as Colorado’s best-performing, locally managed mutual fund in the second quarter.
“I was a little bit anxious when we got off to a rough start,” Schoelzel said.
Two large holdings in the fund, UnitedHealth Group and Genentech Inc., overcame weak performance from eBay Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc.
A move back into energy stocks early in the year also proved timely.
“Energy was one of the key stories throughout the quarter,” said Tom Roseen, a senior research analyst at Lipper in Denver. “Health care and biotech also had a good run.”
Tipperary Corp. and American Oil & Gas Inc., two small petroleum producers, rose 58.2 percent and 53 percent respectively, giving them the first- and third-best showing among Colorado stocks.
Higher titanium prices launched Titanium Metals Corp. into the No. 2 spot with a 57.8 percent return.
“There was a strong market for titanium in all areas – aerospace, oil and gas exploration and chemical and power-plant installations,” said the company’s chairman and chief executive, J. Landis Martin.
Broadband provider Time Warner Telecom Inc. and printer Cenveo Inc., considered a takeover target, were two other top performers among Colorado stocks.
The Colorado Bloomberg Index, a basket of Colorado-based companies, returned 3.6 percent in the quarter, beating the S&P 500’s 0.91 percent return.
After stock markets suffered a shaky start this year, investors sought out more conservative investments, including dividend-paying stocks and bonds, Roseen said.
Utility stocks and the mutual funds investing in them had a strong showing from April to June, reflected in the 8.48 percent rise in the Dow Jones U.S. utility index.
The ICON Telecommunications and Utilities Fund was the state’s top performing specialty mutual fund. Its 8.5 percent return proved that water and electricity can mix.
“Of the 139 industries we track, water utilities was the top performing industry for the quarter, and electric utilities ranked 15th for the period,” said Robert Straus, the fund’s manager.
Straus said he will continue to heavily tilt his fund holdings toward those two industries.
The Janus Life Sciences Fund, was the second- best performing Colorado specialty fund with a 7.7 percent return.
Colorado bond funds had positive returns across the board, averaging a 2.6 percent return for taxable funds and a 2.8 percent return for municipal-bond funds.
Overall, the second quarter was a lot like a sandwich with some good stuff in the middle between two slices of stale bread.
“We had a nice run in the markets from about the mid-part of April until the mid part of June,” said Tom Coxhead, a senior vice president with RBC Dain Rauscher in Denver.
Mutual funds investing in international stocks lagged during the quarter as an unexpected rise in the U.S. dollar hurt their performance.
Colorado’s worst-performing stock was Vita Cube Systems, which shed 51.7 percent during the quarter.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
