The flagship PIMCO Total Return Fund, formerly managed by Bill Gross, had estimated net outflows of $9.7 billion, or nearly 6%, in November 2014, according to Morningstar. Its assets were roughly $171 billion vs. $163 billion in October.
These figures, released in early December, excluded non-U.S. versions of the mutual fund and assets held in the Total Return ETF, which is managed by Newport Beach, California-based PIMCO.
(Meanwhile, Gross' new Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund added $770 million in November, bringing its assets to $1.2 billion, Morningstar says.)
According to PIMCO, the Total Return Fund had outflows of about $9.5 billion. "Outflows from the Total Return Fund continued to slow significantly in November, ending the month 65% lower than flows the previous month," said Daniel Tarman, a spokesperson.
In addition, PIMCO says the fund had an after-fee return of 1%, and excess returns above the benchmark of 0.29% for the month of November, putting it 0.50% above the Morningstar Intermediate-Term Bond Average.
"PIMCO Total Return Fund's strong absolute and relative returns during the past two months are a testament to our investment process and the talent of our investment professionals. Of course PIMCO is more than the Total Return Fund, and as long-term investors across asset classes, we are therefore pleased that 85% of PIMCO's U.S. mutual fund assets outperformed their respective benchmarks over the last three years," said Daniel Ivascyn, group chief investment officer, in a statement.
In contrast to the PIMCO Total Return outflows, the DoubleLine Total Return had net inflows of about $804 million in November 2014, the research group says. This fund had almost $39 billion in total assets in November.
Chicago-based Morningstar notes that it estimates net flows by computing the monthly change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund and that actual fund flows may differ from its estimates for "a variety of reasons, including the timing of actual purchases and redemptions versus our assumptions and the timing and type of dividend distributions."
