CHICAGO, April 17, 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 March 2019. Overall, passive U.S. equity funds took in nearly $24.1 billion while active U.S. equity funds lost $17.9 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 March is available here. Highlights from the report include:

• Overall, long-term March flows of $44.0 billion capped a solid first quarter. First-quarter long-term flows were $136.0 billion, which matched the same period in 2018 and were slightly above the $128.0 billion average from 2009 to 2018.
• In March, bond funds continued to see inflows with $35.3 billion going to taxable-bond funds and $8.8 billion to municipal-bond funds. This was the best quarter for muni funds since 2009, which collected $27.8 billion over the past 12 months.
• Taxable intermediate-term bond funds fared the best of any Morningstar Category, with $18.7 billion in inflows. These strong flows reflected the broader continuing popularity of core-oriented strategies, with large-blend funds collecting $16.5 billion in March, followed by $5.0 billion for foreign-large blend funds and $4.6 billion for muni national intermediate funds.
• Among the 10 largest U.S. fund families, Vanguard led monthly firm inflows with $21.8 billion. It benefited from strong interest in its core strategies with its intermediate-term bond, large-blend, and foreign large-blend offerings collecting $15.9 billion in March.
• Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard Total International Stock Index, and Vanguard 500 Index, which all boast Morningstar Analyst Ratings™ of Gold, took in the second-, third-, and fourth-highest March inflows with $5.5 billion, $4.3 billion, and $3.1 billion, respectively. IShares Core S&P 500 ETF led all funds with $7.3 billion.
• T. Rowe Price had the largest monthly outflows at $2.9 billion, which came from a number of different funds. The firm has now seen outflows in nine of the past 10 months.

To view the complete report, please click here.

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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, 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 $193 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Dec. 31, 2018. The company has operations in 27 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc.

Morningstar's Manager Research Group consists of various wholly owned subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc. including, but not limited to, Morningstar Research Services LLC. Analyst Ratings are subjective in nature and should not be used as the sole basis for investment decisions. Analyst Ratings are based on Morningstar's Manager Research Group's 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 a fund's or separately managed account's underlying securities' creditworthiness. This press release is for informational purposes only; references to securities or a separately managed account investment strategy in this press release should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell the securities or to invest in accordance with that strategy.

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