10 Questions With Janus Growth and Income's David Corkins

Talking With: David Corkins

Fund: (JAGIX Quote)Janus Growth and Income

Assets: $7.4 billion

Managed Since: Aug. 1, 1997

1-Year Return: -26.5%/Beats 83% of Peers

5-Year Return: 18.5%/Beats 96% of Peers

Sales Charge: None

Expense Ratio: 0.89% vs. 1.48% category average

Top-Three Holdings: AOL Time Warner(AOL Quote) Liberty Media Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMY Quote)

Source: Morningstar.

It wouldn't be surprising to see a line of Janus managers outside David Corkins' office with pen and paper in hand. After all, he's done what many of his colleagues and competitors couldn't: weather the past year's storm.

Corkins took over the (JAGIX Quote)Janus Growth and Income fund when Tom Marsico left the firm back in 1997. Since then he's beaten the average large-cap growth fund every year. He outperformed more than 80% of his competitors over the past year, when many of his colleagues' funds collapsed. And over the past five years -- a riches-to-rags stretch for many growth investors -- the fund topped 96% of its peers.

What's his secret? Well, he doesn't tend to make vast bets on a single company or sector, and he keeps most of the fund in stocks of companies he's willing to hold for years. Given his knack for posting solid gains, we got in that line outside his office to save you a trip to Denver. He told us which companies are worth owning for years, how his colleagues are reacting to the past year's drubbing and why many tech stocks aren't necessarily bargains today. Want the details? Read on.

1. You've sidestepped a lot of the obstacles that a lot of growth managers ran into. How'd you do it?

Well, my goal is to hopefully beat the market on the upside and not do too much damage on the downside. So that's kind of how I manage money, with those goals in mind.

I'm very risk/reward oriented, so I'm willing to take risks but only if I feel the reward is there. I'm not always right, but I constantly think of the risk/reward tradeoff on a stock in terms of what's the downside and upside [potential] with a certain stock given its valuation? I also own fixed income, which is typically a zero to 10% of the portfolio. ...