An ETF boutique's flows last month were more than five times the inflows of any other small fund firm.

John Parish Love USCF President, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on April 2020 ETF and open-end mutual fund flows, excluding money-market funds and funds-of-funds. More specifically, this article focuses on the 151 firms (up from 144 in March) with between $1 billion and $10 billion each in fund AUM. 57 of those firms gained net April inflows, up from 45 in March.

USCF kept the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $3.361 billion in net April inflows, up from $2.099 billion in March. Other big April inflows winners included: Ark, $596 million (up from $281 million); Polen, $584 million (up from $410 million); Mercer, $368 million (up from $194 million); and AlphaCentric, $359 million (up from $1.036 billion in net outflows).

USCF also led last month proportionately, thanks to estimated net inflows equivalent to 71.4 percent of its AUM, up from 69.4 percent in March. Other big April inflows winners included: U.S. Global Investors, 28.3 percent (down from 46.8 percent); AlphaCentric, 15.3 percent (up from 56.5 percent in net outflows); Ark, 12.5 percent (up from 8.6 percent); and Infinity Q, 10.6 percent (down from 14.1 percent).

On the flip side, April was a rough month for Credit Suisse, which suffered an estimated $581 million in net outflows, more than any other small fund firm but down from $791 million in March. Other big April outflows sufferers included: Robeco's Boston Partners, $534 million (down from $778 million); FMI, $519 million (down from $1.019 billion); Blackstone, $502 million (up from $443 million); and Elements Funds, $475 million (up from $387 million).

Proportionately among small fund firms, Elements had the roughest April, thanks to estimated net outflows equivalent to 40.3 percent of its AUM, up from 26.2 percent in March. Other big April outflows sufferers included: Semper, 15.1 percent (down from 42 percent); Boston Partners, 13.4 percent (down from 18.4 percent); Tortoise, 12.3 percent (up from 10.4 percent); and Brookfield, 12.1 percent (up from 1.3 percent).

As a group, the 151 small fund firms suffered an estimated $371 million in net April outflows, equivalent to 0.08 percent of their combined AUM and down 97.78 percent from March.

Across the entire industry, the 763 fund firms (down seven from March) tracked by the M* team brought in a combined $16.388 billion in net inflows, equivalent to 0.09 percent of their combined AUM. That's up from $326.378 billion in net March outflows. In April, active funds suffered an estimated $21.202 billion in net outflows (down from $309.808 billion in March), while passive funds brought in an estimated $37.598 billion in net inflows (up from $16.57 billion in net outflows in March).

Editor's Note: A prior version of this story a wrong overall inflows figure (as a percentage of AUM) for April. Estimated industry net inflows were equivalent to 0.09 percent of industry AUM.

Also, a prior version of this story gave the wrong number of small fund firms (i.e. firms with between $1 billion and $10 billion each in long-term MF and ETF AUM) tracked by M*. There were 151 of those fund firms. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE