CHICAGO, Jan. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 December 2016. Investors ended the year by
favoring passively managed U.S. equity funds over actively managed
funds by a record margin, placing an estimated $50.8 billion in passive funds in December. On
the active side, investors pulled $23.0
billion out of U.S. equity funds during the 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
December:
- Investors' preferences have shifted to favoring stock funds
over bond funds, amid growing optimism about the U.S. economy and
continued rising interest rates and inflation. The overall inflows
tally for U.S. stock funds hit its highest monthly total since
April 2000, at $27.8 billion. Taxable bond funds saw overall net
inflows of $14.6 billion in
December.
- December 2016 saw overall
outflows from alternative strategies of $4.4
billion, with full-year outflows of $4.7 billion. This marked the worst showing for
alternative funds since 2005 and is a significant reversal from
2015 when they took in $13.3
billion.
- Morningstar Category trends for December showed bank-loan funds
as a leading category with inflows of $6.0
billion on the active side and $1.4
billion for passive strategies, continuing a recent trend of
growing interest in these funds.
- Vanguard dominated the flows landscape in 2016. The firm took
in $277.0 billion in total new money
during the year, finishing at $3.4
trillion in long-term assets. American Funds saw
$4.9 billion in active outflows
during 2016, while Fidelity Investments offset some of the bleeding
on the active side with $37.2 billion
in passive inflows.
- Among index-fund and exchange-traded funds, SPDR S&P 500
ETF took in the most assets at $14.3
billion for December 2016,
followed by three Vanguard funds with offerings for U.S. stocks,
international stocks, and U.S. bonds.
- PIMCO Income, which has a Morningstar Analyst Rating™ of
Silver, is the top active individual fund in terms of inflows; the
fund took in $1.5 billion in December
and $13.7 billion for 2016.
Bronze-rated Franklin Federal Tax Free Income bucked the trend for
outflows in December among active municipal-bond funds, seeing
inflows of $1.4 billion.
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.
About Morningstar, Inc.
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 retirement plan providers and sponsors.
Morningstar provides data on nearly 540,000 investment offerings,
including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with
real-time global market data on approximately 18.5 million
equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious
metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets.
Morningstar also offers investment management services through its
investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $200 billion in assets under advisement and
management as of Sept. 30, 2016. The
company has operations in 27 countries.
Analyst Ratings are subjective in nature and should not
be used as the sole basis for investment decisions. Analyst Ratings
noted herein are based on Morningstar Research Services analysts'
current expectations about future events and therefore involve
unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause such expectations
not to occur or to differ significantly from what was expected.
Analyst Ratings are not guarantees nor should they be viewed as an
assessment of a fund's or the fund's underlying securities'
creditworthiness. This press release is for informational purposes
only; it should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy
or sell the mutual funds noted within.
©2017 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MORN-R
Media Contact:
Sarah
Pellegrino, +1 312 244-7358 or
sarah.pellegrino@morningstar.com
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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.