Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows for April 2021. For the month, long-term mutual funds and exchange-traded funds collected $124 billion in April, down from a record $156 billion in March. Investors continued to favor passively managed strategies, pouring in $94 billion; approximately $30 billion went to actively managed funds.
Morningstar’s report about U.S. fund flows for April 2021 is available here. Additional highlights from the report include:
- Taxable bond funds took in $65 billion, the most of any category group. Bank-loan and inflation-protected bond funds added $5.8 billion and $5.5 billion in April, respectively.
- U.S. equity funds shed just over $500 million as investors paused after putting in a record $54 billion in March. The market’s pivot to value-oriented niche categories continued in April. Equity categories such as financials, natural resources, real estate, and energy collected some of the highest totals within the sector-equity category group, which brought in $10.6 billion during the month.
- International-equity funds brought in $31 billion for the second month in a row. They have experienced inflows for six consecutive months following a spate of outflows beginning in March 2020.
- Allocation funds took in nearly $4 billion, representing the second month in a row of inflows after 69 consecutive months—nearly six years—of outflows. Target-date and model-portfolio rebalancing largely accounted for the month’s inflows.
- Passive funds giant Vanguard took in the most assets among fund families, though primarily active shops such as American Funds and J.P. Morgan also enjoyed inflows.
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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 and owners, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the debt and 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, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $244 billion in assets under advisement and management as of March 31, 2021. The Company has operations in 29 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc.
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