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2021 Inflows Near $400B After Strong May
Sumit Roy
17 min read

In This Article:

With another month in the books, ETF inflows continued at their record pace. Investors added $66.5 billion to their U.S.-listed ETF holdings during the month of May, bringing year-to-date inflows up to $394.8 billion—well ahead of the $121.1 billion seen at this same time a year ago.

Barring a major setback, 2021’s inflows are poised to easily topple last year’s full-year record of $507.4 billion. In fact, if the current pace continues, this year’s inflows could challenge the once-unthinkable $1 trillion level. But that’s a big “if.” There’s a full seven months to go in the year, and the pace of inflows can change rapidly depending on the economic and market environment.

Inflows Evenly Split

Taking a closer look at the data from May, the inflows were fairly evenly split across the various segments. U.S. equity ETFs took in $24.2 billion; international equity ETF pulled in $17.4 billion and U.S. fixed income ETFs gathered $14 billion of fresh cash.

On a year-to-date basis, U.S. equity ETFs are leading, with $181.5 billion of inflows, followed by international equity ETFs with $118.2 billion and U.S. fixed income ETFs with $69.4 billion.

Both U.S. and international stocks held strong in May. The S&P 500 hovered near its all-time high of 4,200, while the MSCI EAFE Index climbed to its best level since 2007.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) and the iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA) were the top asset gatherers of the month, each with inflows of more than $2.6 billion.

The Vanguard Value ETF (VTV) also saw interest, as value stocks held on to their strong outperformance versus growth stocks for the year. VTV is up 18.5% this year compared to 7% for the Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG).

Investors Shun Low-Vol ETF

On the outflows side of the ledger, notable ETFs with redemptions in May included the iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF (IYR), the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), the iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (USMV) and the iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF (IHI).

USMV is also among the least popular funds of the year, with $7.4 billion of outflows for 2021 as a whole. It’s joined by the iShares iBoxx USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) and the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), which have year-to-date outflows of $11.9 billion and $7.1 billion, respectively.

For a full list of the top inflows and outflows for May and the year as a whole, see the tables below:

 

Top Gainers (May 2021)

Ticker

Name

Issuer

Net Flows ($,mm)

AUM ($M)

% of AUM

YTD 2021 Net Flows($,M)

VOO

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

Vanguard

3,778.32

225,507.49

1.68%

24,153.18

VTI

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF

Vanguard

2,657.85

243,452.07

1.09%

16,662.99

IEFA

iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF

Blackrock

2,631.63

96,646.23

2.72%

3,832.93

VTV

Vanguard Value ETF

Vanguard

2,116.61

81,876.35

2.59%

8,944.21

BBEU

JPMorgan BetaBuilders Europe ETF

JPMorgan Chase

1,982.22

8,497.51

23.33%

4,468.08

BSV

Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF

Vanguard

1,703.55

34,124.12

4.99%

4,716.69

RSP

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF

Invesco

1,569.22

28,617.59

5.48%

6,637.13

GLD

SPDR Gold Trust

State Street Global Advisors

1,567.17

63,421.66

2.47%

-7,070.24

XLV

Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund

State Street Global Advisors

1,545.74

27,564.63

5.61%

-185.08

XLF

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund

State Street Global Advisors

1,534.28

44,677.90

3.43%

11,169.56

 

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