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The Janus List: Nokia Still No. 1 as VeriSign Rises on the Charts

Ian McDonald

All investors want their favorites to be on the list. Today is the day to find out.

Four times a year, you get a peek at the coveted, guarded list of top holdings of Janus fund managers. Janus filed its paperwork -- a list of its holdings as of June 30 -- on Tuesday.

The upshot: It has hung on to its biggest bets (such as sagging Nokia(NOK Quote - Cramer on NOK - Stock Picks)) while increasing its stakes in online security shop VeriSign(VRSN Quote - Cramer on VRSN - Stock Picks), Telefonos de Mexico(TMX Quote - Cramer on TMX - Stock Picks) and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer(PFE Quote - Cramer on PFE - Stock Picks), while reducing its holdings in varying degrees in software titan Microsoft(MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks), Check Point Software(CHKP Quote - Cramer on CHKP - Stock Picks) and semiconductor shop Linear Technology(LLTC Quote - Cramer on LLTC - Stock Picks).

Like most fund managers, Janus closely guards the names of its faves. Despite the hot-selling Denver growth shop's best efforts at keeping its cards close to its vest, though, every fund company has to show its hand when it lists its holdings with regulators every quarter.

The list is only through the end of June, but it's probably the freshest information you'll ever get from Janus, whose funds typically have many picks in common. And there's a long line of investors waiting for the list -- even beyond the 4 million owners of Janus funds.

After a few years of outsize returns -- the average Janus stock fund posted a stunning 81% gain last year -- investors large and small have obsessively chased the stocks Janus picks, hoping to bottle its lightning. Investors still want to know where it's putting its billions, even though many of its high-octane funds have slowed from last year's blistering pace.

Only six of its top-20 stock picks are down for the year: Nokia (-13.5%), VeriSign (-23%), America Online(AOL Quote - Cramer on AOL - Stock Picks) (-30.1%), Telefonos de Mexico (-8.6%) and cable TV concerns Comcast (CMCSK Quote - Cramer on CMCSK - Stock Picks)(-33.9%) and AT&T Liberty Media (LMG.A Quote - Cramer on LMG.A - Stock Picks)(-23.4%).

More intriguing than a scoreboard, though, is a look at what moves the shop made in the spring quarter. For starters, it held on to its biggest bets, with some modest selling.

Janus funds own fewer shares of Nokia, Cisco Systems(CSCO Quote - Cramer on CSCO - Stock Picks) and Sun Microsystems(SUNW Quote - Cramer on SUNW - Stock Picks) than they did at the end of the first quarter. The stocks lost 8.1%, 17.8% and 3%, respectively, in the second quarter. Many institutional traders whispered that stocks such as Nokia were going down because Janus -- far and away the largest institutional shareholder -- was dumping its position. But it doesn't look as if that's the case, since Janus had more than $13 billion sunk into the stock as of June 30.

In fact, although some of Janus' top-seven picks from the end of the first quarter have changed places, the stocks themselves are pretty much the same.

The new faces in the top 20 are VeriSign, Telefonos de Mexico, Pfizer, and Veritas Software (VRTS Quote - Cramer on VRTS - Stock Picks) . Aside from Veritas, which lost 13.7% in the second quarter but is up 7% for the year, Janus was a buyer of each in the second quarter. VeriSign made the biggest move in the second quarter, leapfrogging from the firm's 27th-biggest position to its eighth-largest as Janus raised its balance from 10.5 million shares to more than 25.5 million. The stock is off 19% this year, but in 1999 it went up more than 1,100%, according to Morningstar.

The rise on the Janus list is at least partially due to VeriSign's recent acquisition of Network Solutions, which was among the Janus top 20 at the end of the winter quarter.

Janus raised its stake in Pfizer, up 31.9% this year, from 32.9 million shares to more than 51 million in the second quarter. Telefonos de Mexico, probably held in the firm's currently closed $41.3 billion (JAWWX Quote - Cramer on JAWWX - Stock Picks)Janus Worldwide and $10.2 billion (JAOSX Quote - Cramer on JAOSX - Stock Picks)Janus Overseas funds, is down 7.5% for the year. Janus raised its stake from some 40.7 million shares to more than 61.5 million in the second quarter.

On the flip side are those stocks that have fallen from the top 20. It's a tetchy list of castaways that includes Microsoft, Check Point Software and Linear Technology.

On March 31, Microsoft, down 38.7% for the year, was Janus' 14th-biggest position, with 38.7 million shares. But in the second quarter Janus managers nearly halved that position down to 20.6 million.

Check Point Software and Linear Technology are up 148.1% and 83.7% this year, but Janus managers reduced their stake in both in the second quarter. On March 31 Janus owned 13.8 million Check Point shares, but on June 30 only 6.4 million.

Janus managers sold less of their Linear Technology stake. On March 31 the firm owned 36.9 million shares and they still own 35.5 million shares.