Lord Abbett Mid-Cap Value Cashes Reality Check Fund, up 2.2%, uses revenue, earnings screens to locate solid winners.(B)(FUND PROFILE)

Byline: Tom Gray

A 50% gain in a year is a hard act for any mutual fund to follow. But Lord Abbett Mid-Cap Value Fund, which had a total return of 53% in 2000, is holding its own so far this year.

Some former growth-stock favorites may be showing signs of life, but the fund's brand of value investing hasn't gone out of style.

It's finding value in some new places, though. While the fund has stayed invested in energy, health care and utilities -- the sectors that produced suchstrong results last year -- it has recently been moving into consumer and cyclical stocks.

Its top 10 holdings include big winners from 2000, such as pharmaceutical service firm CareMark Rx, medical equipment maker Varian Medical Systems and restaurant chain operator CBRL Group.

It also has new or beefed-up holdings, such as retailer J.C. Penney and basic materials producer Georgia-Pacific.

This year, the $930 million fund also took stakes in discount retailer Kmart, household products maker Newell Rubbermaid and chemicals firm Solutia.