For the first time in five months, someone beat Vanguard in net mutual fund flows last month.

Marie A. Chandoha Charles Schwab Investment Management President and CEO

Today Chicago-based investment research specialist Morningstar publicly released its "Morningstar Direct Asset Flows Commentary: United States" report for April 2017. Alina Lamy, senior analyst of quantitative research, penned the report. (An abridged version of the report is publicly accessible, while the full report and appendices are available to Morningstar Direct users.)

BlackRock, driven largely by its iShares ETF business, came in first last month with $25.935 billion in net open-end mutual fund and ETF inflows, M* estimates. Yet low-cost mutual fund titan Vanguard was close behind with $25.08 billion in estimated net inflows. The other biggest net inflows winners last month were: Schwab, $3.133 billion in net inflows; Capital Group's American Funds, $2.953 billion; and DFA, $2.764 billion.

Schwab led the big fund firm pack in April on a relative basis, bringing in estimated net inflows of 2.25 percent of its AUM. Close behind (in net inflows as a percentage of AUM) were BlackRock with 1.92 percent, and Guggenheim with 1.82 percent. Rounding out the top five big fund firm winners on a relative basis were Lord Abbett with 0.87 percent and DFA with 0.80 percent.

On the flip side, J.P. Morgan suffered an estimated $9.026 billion in net outflows last month, more than any other fund firm. The other biggest sufferers in April were: SSgA, $5.803 billion in net outflows; Fidelity, $2.846 billion; T. Rowe Price, $2.468 billion; and Franklin Templeton, $2.386 billion.

J.P. Morgan's mutual fund flow pain topped the other big fund firms on a relative basis, too, with estimated net outflows amounting to 3.2 percent of its AUM. The other biggest sufferers proportionately, among big fund firms, were: Columbia Threadneedle, estimated net outflows amounting to 1.3 percent of its AUM; Harbor, 1.26 percent; SSgA, 1.08 percent; and Wells Fargo, 0.77 percent.

Industrywide, long-term, active mutual fund outflows more than doubled to $10.513 billion in April, M* estimates. Money market funds net outflows also rose slightly, to $20.405 billion. And passive funds' net inflows slipped to $53.518 billion.

Within long-term, active mutual funds, taxable bond funds brought in an estimated $10.39 billion in net inflows last month. International equity funds brought in $1.83 billion, alternative funds $879 million, and commodities funds $299 million.

Meanwhile, long-term, active U.S. equity mutual funds suffered an estimated $16.798 billion in April net outflows. $3.502 billion flowed out of muni bond funds, $2.024 billion out of allocation funds, and $1.587 billion out of sector equity funds. 

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