February was a great month for DoubleLine [profile] and AB [profile]. Meanwhile, Vanguard [profile] continued to utterly dominate industry flows.

Alina Lamy Morningstar Senior Analyst, Market Research

Earlier this week Morningstar released the Morningstar Direct U.S. Asset Flows Update for February 2016. The 17-page report, penned by markets research senior analyst Alina Lamy, digs into Morningstar's estimates of industry mutual fund flows last month.

In absolute terms, Vanguard had another big month, bringing in an estimated $20.673 billion in net open-end mutual fund and ETF inflows in February. (That's five months in a row on top for Vanguard) The rest of the top five inflows winners were: BlackRock [profile], which brought in $4.038 billion; DFA [profile], $2.381 billion; DoubleLine, $2.205 billion; and Capital Group's American Funds [profile], $1.978 billion.

Proportionately, DoubleLine was on top for a second month in a row, netting inflows equivalent to 3.29 percent of its AUM. The other top five inflows winners in February in percentage-terms were: AB, 1.53 percent of AUM; TCW [profile], 1.28 percent; DFA, 0.934 percent, and Vanguard, 0.73 percent.

On the flip side, the five biggest net outflow sufferers (in absolute terms) in February were: Franklin Templeton [profile], $3.197 billion; Pimco [profile], $2.482 billion; Invesco [profile], $2.339 billion; J.P. Morgan [profileHarris Associates' Oakmark [profile], $1.061 billion.

In percentage terms, the biggest net outflow sufferers in February were: New York Life's MainStay [profile], 1.65 percent; USAA [profile], 1.63 percent; Oakmark, 1.58 percent; Putnam [profile], 1.52 percent, and GMO [profile], 1.23 percent.

Industrywide, Morningstar estimates that long-term, active, open-end mutual funds and ETFs netted $9.521 billion in outflows last month. $23.082 billion net flowed into long-term, passive, open-end mutual funds and ETFs, while $41.629 billion flowed into money market funds.

Of the different categories of long-term, active, open-end funds, U.S. equity funds took the biggest hit in February , suffering $11.371 billion in net outflows. $5.452 billion net flowed out of allocation funds, $4.92 billion out of taxable bond funds, and $1.364 billion out of sector equity funds. Meanwhile, municipal bond funds drew in the biggest inflows last month (among long-term, active, open-end funds), of $4.946 billion. Other net inflow categories included: international equity, $4.122 billion in net inflows; alternatives, $3.715 billion in inflows; and commodities, $799 million in net inflows. 

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