Investors Put Money into Equity Income Funds during Q4

Equity income funds (including both mutual funds and ETFs) took in $617 million of net new money for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, November 15. This positive net flow extended the group’s quarter to date net increase to $4.9 billion, which puts them on pace for their best quarterly increase since the fourth quarter of 2013, when they took in $7.3 billion of net new money. The $4.9 billion quarter to date net inflow is the best among the domestic equity fund peer groups, which overall have seen $14.1 billion leave their coffers this quarter. The group’s fourth quarter surge was paced by its largest weekly net inflow ever of $2.5 billion during the fund-flows week ended October 30 (Lipper began tracking fund flows data in 1992).

Overall, for the fourth quarter the net flows into equity income funds are almost split evenly between mutual funds (+$2.6 billion) and ETFs (+$2.3 billion). Drilling down to the fund level though, four out of the five largest individual net inflows belong to mutual funds, as JPMorgan Equity Income Fund, Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund, Columbia Dividend Income Fund, and Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund have experienced positive net flows of $1.3 billion, $799 million, $654 million, and $482 million, respectively, for the quarter to date. The largest individual net inflow for an ETF for this time period belongs to SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), which is up $1.2 billion. The lion’s share of SDY’s quarter to date net inflows occurred during the record-setting fund-flows week of October 30, when it took in $1.4 billion of net new money.