Kautz Resignation Spooks Janus Capital Group Shareholders

Janus Capital Group

shares are trading lower by $0.50 at $16.93 in Thursday's session. The catalyst for the decline is the abrupt resignation of its Perkins Fund CEO Jeff Kautz. Interestingly, he has only been with the company since January of this year and may have been hand-picked by Bill Gross for a leadership role in the company. After a higher open, instigated by a Citigroup upgrade from Sell to Neutral, the issue matched Wednesday's high ($17.62), peaking at $17.63, before reversing course. The ensuing decline took the issue through Wednesday's low ($17.03), before finding support just ahead of Tuesday's low ($16.86) at $16.88. Since making the low it has been unable to reclaim the $17.00 level. If the decline continues through the intraday low, it may find additional support at Monday's low ($16.65).