Stocks have further to climb into year end, Ariel Investments Chairman and CEO John Rogers said on CNBC's "Fast Money" on Thursday.

"I think we're fairly valued," he said. "I'd say we're kind of in the fifth inning of this recovery, and the market still has a good ways to go as we get toward the end of the year."

With long- and intermediate-term interest rates were almost certainly to rise, the signals are clear. "You want to stay away from bonds," Rogers said.

"I think the biggest risk is missing out on a big upside rally that could surprise people," he added.

(Read more: Risk assets top US treasurys: JPMorgan's Loomis)

Rogers weighed in on two of his top stock picks, Blackstone and Janus.

"We think there's so much value there—over $250 billion under management, such diversified assets in the different areas of the alternative-investment world," he said of Blackstone. "We think it's going to be a great long-term holding."

The possibility that CEO Tony James might step down doesn't concern him, Rogers said.

(Read more: No reason to get spooked by stock market: Pro)

"CEOs, they come and they go in this industry," he said. "You see it happen all the time in asset management. Assets are sticky, and as diversified as they are, with the professional management they have, the depth, the team that they have and the kind of leaders they have throughout the organization, it's not dependent on one personality at all."

Janus was a value pick, he said.

"The stock is very, very cheap. The stock has underperformed because they have underperformed," Rogers said, adding that Janus had done "a great job" of diversifying and was poised to see its business pick up. "They're going to surprise on the upside."

—By CNBC's Bruno J. Navarro. Follow him on Twitter @Bruno_J_Navarro.