Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund and ETF Fund Flows for February 2019

CHICAGO, March 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) fund flows for February 2019. Overall, passive U.S. equity funds took in nearly $13.1 billion while active U.S. equity funds lost $9.9 billion to outflows. 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 U.S. ETFs shares outstanding and reported net assets.

Morningstar's report about U.S. fund flows for February is available here. Highlights from the report include:

• Overall, long-term flows in February were $53.5 billion, their best month since January 2018. For the first two months of 2019, long-term flows were $92.7 billion, marking a strong start to 2019.
• With the Federal Reserve signaling a pause in interest-rate increases, taxable-bond investors flocked to February's most popular categories: intermediate-term bond, and high-yield bond, which collected $15.5 billion and $5.6 billion, respectively. With the Federal Reserve held at bay, ultrashort bond funds collected just $3.8 billion in 2019, with short-term bond and short-government funds contributing about $5.0 billion combined.
• Leading Morningstar Categories in February were intermediate-term bond and large-blend funds with $15.5 billion and $9.2 billion in inflows, respectively.
• Active funds saw $11.4 billion in inflows overall, which was just the group's fifth month with more than $10.0 billion of inflows during the past three years. Passive funds collected $42.2 billion.
• Among the 10 largest U.S. fund families, Vanguard dominated overall inflows with $20.5 billion, followed by Fidelity with $9.5 billion. Vanguard's overall market share is now 25 percent. Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index, the month's top-flowing fund which boasts a Morningstar Analyst Ratingtm of Silver, contributed flows of $5.3 billion.
• Franklin Templeton was the only firm in the top 10 to see outflows this month of $1.2 billion, but this was its best showing since May 2015. The firm's active lineup has struggled amid the trend toward passive vehicles.

To view the complete report, please click here.

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