Vanguard funds add $498 billion, while T. Rowe Price leads in returns

The 10 largest institutional mutual fund managers added $1.1 trillion in market value through the first four months of 2019 while attracting about $120 billion in new client money.

Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments led the group in both categories, adding a combined $498 billion and $255 billion in total assets, respectively. None of the observed managers experienced negative market returns as the broad markets rallied from late 2018's downturn. Only T. Rowe Price and John Hancock had net client outflows.

Relative to beginning-of-year assets, T. Rowe Price led the cohort in market returns, increasing client assets by 15.4%. MFS and Fidelity followed, with investment gains of 15.2% and 14.6%, respectively, over their Jan. 1 starting point. The predominantly fixed-income-focused BlackRock and PIMCO were at the bottom of the list, which should be expected in up equity markets.