CHICAGO, Feb. 13, 2015 /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 January 2015. With the exception of U.S. equity funds, all active Morningstar category groups had positive flows for the first month of the year, led by municipal-bond and sector-equity funds. Passive funds, with inflows of $26.1 billion, outpaced active funds, which took in $470 million in January, and taxable-bond funds led passive offerings with inflows of $10.9 billion. 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.

Additional highlights from Morningstar's report about U.S. asset flows in January:

• Of the total assets in passive funds, 65% are invested at an expense ratio of 0.10% or lower, while 65% of total active assets are invested at an expense ratio of 0.90% or lower. More than half of active assets are invested in funds with expense ratios between 0.60% and 1.00%.
• While active U.S. equity funds have seen outflows for some time, passive U.S. equity funds experienced monthly outflows for the first time since January 2014. SPDR S&P 500, with January redemptions of $26.2 billion, or 12% of its assets, was responsible for the bulk of the outflows.
• Despite providing excess returns above both its benchmark and the intermediate-term bond category average, PIMCO Total Return, which has a Morningstar Analyst Rating™ of Bronze, had outflows of $12.5 billion in January, bringing total outflows for the last five months to $90.5 billion. At the firm level, PIMCO has lost $164.8 billion since January 2014, a 31% decrease in assets. Janus' three-month streak of inflows since Bill Gross joined the firm came to an end with outflows of $18 million in January.
• American Funds had its best month of inflows since May 2009, led by American Funds Global Balanced and American Funds American Balanced, which both have a Silver Analyst Rating.
• For the fourth consecutive month, two intermediate-term bond funds with Gold Analyst Ratings, Metropolitan West Total Return Bond and Dodge & Cox Income, were among the active funds with the highest monthly inflows. On the passive side, Vanguard had four of the five funds with the highest inflows in January, while WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity increased its assets by 50% during the month.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/janflows15. To view a video recapping January's U.S. asset flow trends, please visit http://bit.ly/jan2015flows. 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. References to and commentary about the above mentioned funds should not be considered a solicitation to buy or sell that fund.

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 approximately 500,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 14 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 and had approximately $170 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Dec. 31, 2014. The company has operations in 27 countries.

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Media Contact:

Carling Spelhaug, +1 312 696-6150 or carling.spelhaug@morningstar.com

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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.