At the issuer level, Dimensional and JP Morgan again positioned themselves to be among the cash flow leaders in 2024, taking in $10.3 billion and $8.1 billion, respectively. Sandwiched between them at #2 for the quarter was BlackRock/iShares with $8.5 billion. Their flows were carried by $6.9 billion into the BlackRock U.S. Equity Factor Rotation ETF and $2.3 billion into the BlackRock Flexible Income ETF. Dimensional maintained its consistency through the quarter as all 38 ETFs maintained positive cash flow yet again. JP Morgan led all issuers with three ETFs in the top 10 in cash flow: JEPQ (+$2.9 billion), JEPI (+$1.7 billion) and JGLO (+$1.2 billion). Capital Group (+$4.7 billion), American Century/Avantis (+$4.5 billion), First Trust/Vest (+$3.6 billion), Janus ($+2.8 billion), Fidelity (+$2.3 billion), PIMCO (+$1.6 billion), GraniteShares (+$1.5 billion), Alpha Architect (+$1.5 billion), YieldMax (+$1.1 billion), AB (+$1.1 billion) and SEI (+$1.1 billion) rounded out the list of issuers with greater than $1 billion in cash flows for their actively managed lineups. Notably, the number of firms with $1 billion in cash flow during Q1 doubled year over year. American Century/Avantis and Capital Group both saw flows across their lineups into their broader market, lower cost actively managed ETFs. First Trust/Vest saw flows across their core fixed income ETFs along with a range of their defined outcome strategies. Fidelity, PIMCO and Alpha Architect were all led by strong flows into a singular fixed income ETF; Fidelity Total Bond ETF (FBND, +$1.4 billion,), PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity ETF (MINT, +$0.9 billion), Alpha Architect 1-3 Month Box ETF (BOXX, +$1.4 billion). GraniteShares and YieldMax both benefited from their differing single stock focused lineups. GraniteShares was led by $1.0 billion into its 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF (NVDL) and YieldMax by the trio of Option Income focused ETFs off Tesla (+$0.2 billion, TSLY), Nvidia (+$0.2 billion, NVDY) and Coinbase ($+0.2 billion, CONY). AB saw growth across their lineup, yet it was most concentrated in their Conservative Buffer ETF (BUFC, +$0.5 billion) and Ultra Short Income ETF (+$0.3 billion, TAFI). Lastly, SEI experienced fairly balanced growth across its lineup of Factor focused ETFs.

During Q1, nearly 70% of issuers experienced positive cash flows and nearly a fourth had cash flows in excess of $50 million. In addition to the issuers mentioned above, CCM (+$0.9 billion), RexShares (+$0.8 billion), Simplify (+$0.8 billion), T. Rowe Price (+$0.8 billion), Neos (+$0.7 billion), PGIM (+$0.6 billion), Morgan Stanley (+$0.6 billion) and ALPS (+$0.5 billion) all crossed $0.5 billion in net cash flows. These eight issuers found varied paths to their success, from ultra-short, fixed income (PGIM), equity income (Neos), broad equity (T.Rowe & CCM), floating rate (Morgan Stanley), core fixed income (ALPS), single ETF/stock inverse (RexShares) and a variety of strategies (Simplify).

At the product level, nearly 65% of active ETFs saw positive flows for the quarter and 239 experienced flows over $50 million (often viewed as a general break-even measure for an ETF), double the total at the same time last year. The industry’s asset weighted expense ratio stayed steady at 0.42% through the quarter. Nearly 75% of all cash flows went into ETFs with expense ratios below the industry average. Year-over-year cash flow increased into ETFs with expense ratios above the industry average largely as a result of increased use of structured product ETFs that either seek downside protection or provide access to single stock/ETFs focused on income or leverage. Only 13 of the 109 ETFs launched during the quarter offered an expense ratio equal to or below the industry average.