Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund and ETF Asset Flows for April 2017

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) asset flows for April 2017. In April, investors put $17.1 billion into U.S. equity passive funds, down from $31.1 billion in March 2017. On the active side, investors pulled $16.8 billion out of U.S. equity funds, compared with $18.6 billion in the previous month. Morningstar estimates net flow for mutual funds by computing the change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund and net flow for ETFs by computing the change in shares outstanding.

Highlights from Morningstar's report about U.S. asset flows in April:

• International equity garnered the highest total flows among equity category groups at $21.1 billion. However, taxable-bond funds continued to be the overall leader with inflows of $26.0 billion.
• Total flows were at their lowest so far in 2017, at $43.0 billion. The positive flows came from predominantly international equity and taxable bond, even as the Federal Reserve is expected to continue raising interest rates.
• The three Morningstar Categories in April with the highest inflows were foreign large blend, large blend, and intermediate-term bond. The foreign-large blend category, which is concentrated mostly in Europe, garnered $10.6 billion of inflows on the passive side and $1.5 billion of inflows on the active side.
• The muni-national short category saw the largest outflows in April of $2.9 billion, all on the active side.
• Among top U.S. fund families, PIMCO had active inflows of $2.3 billion, surpassing Vanguard, which saw $879 million of active outflows. Vanguard was the top fund family on the passive side, with inflows of $26.0 billion, followed closely by BlackRock/iShares with $24.9 billion in inflows.
• PIMCO Income, which has a Morningstar Analyst Rating™ of Silver, received the highest inflows of active funds in April of $2.7 billion. Recently launched Destination Funds, including Destinations Large Cap Equity and Destinations Core Fixed Income, saw the next-highest inflows of $2.4 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. JPMorgan Intermediate Tax Free Bond and JPMorgan Core Bond saw respective outflows of $2.8 billion and $1.5 billion.
• The passive fund with the highest inflows was Gold-rated iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, which saw $6.3 billion in inflows. Gold-rated SPDR S&P 500 ETF sustained $5.5 billion in outflows.

To view the complete report, please click here. For more information about Morningstar Asset Flows, please visit http://global.morningstar.com/assetflows. 

The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $200 billion in assets under advisement and management as of March 31, 2017. The company has operations in 27 countries.

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