CHICAGO, April 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows for March 2021. For the month, long-term mutual funds and ETFs collected a record $156 billion, surpassing the $144 billion record set in February.

Morningstar's report about U.S. fund flows for March 2021 is available here. Additional highlights from the report include:

• U.S. equities took in a record $54 billion, well ahead of February 2021's $38 billion, the second-highest total in data going back to 1993. Resurgence in investor appetite for cheap stocks drove the inflows.
• Investors poured into value-oriented and cyclical funds at some of the highest rates in history. Large-value strategies had $20 billion of inflows, the largest sum for that category group on record. Small-value equity funds also had record inflows of $5.4 billion. Both groups posted the highest monthly organic growth rates in nearly two decades.
• International equity funds took in $31 billion, the category's highest total since January 2018. Diversified emerging-markets funds collected a record $14 billion.
• Fixed-income funds took in over $48 billion, their 12th consecutive month of inflows. They have collected $786 billion over the trailing 12 months, the most of any category group.
• Among U.S. fund families, Vanguard collected roughly $42 billion in assets in March, over 95% of which went to passive strategies, while iShares gathered $22 billion. Notably, after ARK ETF Trust's staggering $8 billion intake in February, the firm stepped out of the limelight in March, collecting a comparatively modest $880 million for the month.

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 debt and 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, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $227 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Dec. 31, 2020. The Company has operations in 29 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. 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.