Investment performance in William H. Gross' Unconstrained Bond Fund at Janus Capital Management is improving, outperforming the investment results of the PIMCO Unconstrained Bond Fund that Mr. Gross used to manage before leaving the firm in September 2014.
One-year data from Morningstar Inc. through Sept. 23 show that Mr. Gross' fund had a one-year return of 5.57%, compared with the PIMCO fund, which had a return of 3.86%.
Since Mr. Gross took over the Janus fund on Oct. 6, 2014, through Sept. 23 of this year, investment gains were a smaller, at 1.18%, but Mr. Gross' returns were more than double that of the PIMCO fund, which posted a 0.51% gain during the same period.
The Janus fund and associated separate accounts had $1.9 billion in assets as of June 30, still a fraction of the assets he had managed at Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC.
At his old firm, Mr. Gross had also managed the PIMCO Total Return Fund, whose assets had approached almost $300 billion back in 2013 and was the world's largest bond fund. As of June 30, assets in PIMCO Unconstrained and Total Return funds were $4.4 billion and $86 billion, respectively.
Mr. Gross, declined a request for an interview, through a Janus spokesman.
But in fund commentary in June, he said contributing most to performance was the Janus unconstrained fund's positioning in higher-yielding corporate credits with durations less than three years.
“While credit sold off in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, our positioning in shorter-duration credits aided performance, as these securities were less subject to interest rate and mark-to-market risk,” Mr. Gross said.
