NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Has too much been made of mutual fund manager Bill Miller's famous 13-year winning streak at Legg Mason Value Trust? The celebrated Miller runs the only fund that's beaten Standard & Poor's 500-stock index every year since 1991.
But according to data compiled by Morningstar at MONEY's request, the only 12-month period for which Miller has consistently beaten the S&P is January through December.
In other words, if the calendar year ended in March, April or any month other than December, there'd be no streak. (Example: Miller has actually trailed the S&P four times since 1991 during the 12-month periods from March through February.)
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 | | Manager | | Fund | | returns (annualized) | | Bob Rodriguez | FPA Capital | 20.9% | | Bill Nasgovitz | Heartland Value | 20.2% | | James Schmidt | John Hancock Regional Bank | 20% | | Ed Owens | Vanguard Health Care | 19.5% | | Joel Tillinghast | Fidelity Low-Priced Stock | 19.4% | | John Calamos | Calamos Growth | 19.1% | | Samuel Isaly | Eaton Vance Worldwide Health Sciences | 18.5% | | Robert McDorman Jr. | ICM Small Company | 18.4% | | Paul Wick | Seligman Communications & Information | 18.3% | | Charles McQuaid | Columbia Acorn | 18.1% | | O. Mason Hawkins | Longleaf Partners | 17.9% | | Robert Perkins | Janus Small Cap Value | 17.7% |
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We tell you all this not to disparage Value Trust -- it remains one of our faves -- but rather to expose the high degree of serendipity that's embedded in Miller's claim to fame.
It's a point that Miller readily concedes.
"Streaks of any type tend to involve a certain degree of luck as well as skill," he says.
More impressive than the streak is Miller's 17.7 percent average annualized return since 1991, which is nearly six percentage points better than S&P's. However, his total returns aren't quite as marketable as the streak itself.
Here are 12 fund managers who've done as well or better.
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