With a 33.7% return in 2014, Janus Capital topped the list among publicly traded money managers tracked by Pensions & Investments.
Since the firm announced Bill Gross would be joining Janus on Sept. 26, the stock has gone up nearly 46%.
AllianceBernstein, Legg Mason, Federated and BlackRock rounded out the top five.
Alternative managers largely lagged in 2014, with names like Carlyle, Apollo Global, Och-Ziff and Ares Management among the worst-performing stocks in 2014.