Calamos' [profile] AUM, earnings, and revenue fell again last quarter, but so did its outflows. And its alternative investing products looked strong.

Yesterday the Naperville, Illinois-based mutual fund shop reported its Q4 2014 and full-year earnings. Non-GAAP diluted earnings came in at $0.19 per share, down from $0.23 in Q3 2014 and $0.25 in Q4 2013, but beating expectations by $0.05. Revenue clocked in at $60.495 million for Q4 2014, down from $63.532 million in Q3 2014 and $66.522 million in Q4 2013, and below expectations by about $0.45 million. Assets under management on December 31, 2014 stood at $23.506 billion.

On the earnings call yesterday with analysts, Calamos chairman, CEO and global co-chief investment officer John Calamos highlighted "a slowing of net outflows compared with last year's especially in [the firm's] global growth and U.S. growth strategy." [See Seeking Alpha's transcript of the call.] A net $1.05 billion (including $757 million from mutual funds and $295 million from separately managed accounts) flowed out of Calamos in Q4 2014, more than the $800 million that flowed out in Q3 2014 but less than the $1.421 billion that flowed out in Q4 2013.

"Net outflows for the year are primarily from our equity strategies," Nimish Bhatt, Calamos' chief financial officer, explained on the earnings call. "Since the reopening of the market neutral income fund in the first quarter of 2013, we have had more than $1.5 billion in net inflows into the fund.

Calamos himself pointed to alts as a strong point for the firm last year.

"We were pleased with the continued positive flows we saw in our alternative strategies totaling $717 million for the year," Calamos said on the call.

Bhatt noted that a single alts product, the new long/short fund launched in June 2013, has added $100 million in assets under management in the past year and a half.

In response to a question from Adam Beatty of BofA Merrill, Calamos confirmed that the alts inflows are coming from both the advisor channel and the institutional one. Calamos described alts as "really a hedge against higher interest rates."

Calamos also addressed his plan, unveiled in December 2013, to create a new entity, Calamos Partners, through senior Calamos executives can take stakes in the company. (Calamos Investments is currently 22.2 percent owned by the publicly-traded company, Calamos Asset Management, and 77.8 percent owned privately by Calamos Family Partners.) In response to a question from Andrew Donnantunno of KBW, Calamos' chief said that Calamos Partners is "still in a kind of planning stage." He noted that the firm already has a restricted stock program through which Calamos executives take stakes in the publicly-traded Calamos Asset Management.

To dig deeper into the current state of Calamos, read the earnings reports and Seeking Alpha's transcript of the earnings call. 

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