Janus Capital Group Inc.’s net outflows from stock and bond mutual funds narrowed to $99 million in October, the best showing in more than two years.
Shareholders took the smallest amount from Janus’ long-term funds since removing $58 million in April 2003, according to a monthly report released Friday by Financial Research Corp., a Boston consulting firm.
Denver-based Janus, which last had positive fund flows in May 2001, said last month that it had just completed its most favorable sales quarter in five years.
Chief executive Steve Scheid and investments head Gary Black have sought to improve fund performance and rebuild the company’s reputation following a fund-trading scandal.
During the past 52 months, investors have withdrawn $64.5 billion from Janus’s stock and bond funds. The company manages $139 billion.
American Funds, a unit of Los Angeles-based Capital Group Cos., led the industry in sales, collecting $5.4 billion in October, Financial Research said. American has sold $66.5 billion this year. Inflows at Barclays Global Investors, the world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds, were $5.3 billion. The industry had $27.5 billion in October sales.
Janus’s October flows followed third-quarter sales of funds and institutional accounts that turned positive for the first time since mid-2003. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Patra Chakshuvej wrote in a Nov. 22 report to investors that current-quarter fund flows are “trending better than our estimates.” In September, Janus had fund outflows of $628 million.
