The Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG) share price has dropped over 8% today. Was this update the reason?
Magellan is a fund manager that invests in global shares, Australian shares and infrastructure shares.
Magellan share price drops on monthly update
In September alone, the fund manager saw net outflows of $3.6 billion. This comprised net retail outflows of $0.4 billion and net institutional outflows of $3.2 billion.
Magellan noted that approximately half of the institutional outflows relate to the liquidity requirements of a client impacted by global market volatility in late September.
The fund manager reported that its total funds under management (FUM) dropped from $57.6 billion to $50.9 billion.
In terms of its different strategies, the global shares FUM fell from $30.7 billion to $26.1 billion over the month of September.
Infrastructure shares FUM declined from $18.5 billion to $16.8 billion.
The Australian shares FUM dropped from $8.4 billion to $8 billion.
What does this mean?
In summary, it’s pretty rough for Magellan shareholders and the Magellan share price. FUM continues to sink. Investors were probably hoping that the $1 billion plus monthly outflows would have stopped by now. But no. It continues to see big declines.
Will the FUM return from investors who took their money out? Maybe, maybe not. Some shareholders aren’t sticking around to find out.
FUM is such an important part of the picture for fund managers. It’s where a lot of revenue can come from which of course then translates into net profit.
How will Magellan be able to regain investor confidence? I’m not a fan of the business after it walked away from its external investments strategy – I think the Guzman y Gomez business has a very attractive long-term future.
It probably needs to deliver some longer-term fund outperformance before investors think that the Magellan share price is worth investing in again. The volatility that’s happening gives Magellan the chance to outperform.
But, I’m not looking to buy shares at this lower level because it walked away from that external investment strategy. There are other ASX dividend shares that I think have better long-term futures.
