The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a pretty poor start to the trading week so far this Monday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is down 0.35% to 7,496 points. One ASX 200 share is faring far worse today though. That would be Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG).
The Magellan share price is currently down a hefty 1.25% to $43.32. That stretches this asset manager's year-to-date losses in 2021 so far to 18.3%. The company is also now down around 26% over the past 12 months.
So what has spooked Magellan investors today?
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What's with the Magellan share price today?
Well, it's likely that the company's funds under management (FUM) update for the month of August which Magellan released this morning is what's behind the sell-off we have seen this Monday.
This morning, Magellan told investors that its total FUM as of 31 August stood at $117.955 billion. That was a small increase of 0.79% on where the company's FUM stood at the end of the previous month of July – $117.027 billion.
The company saw both its retail and institutional funds under management increase slightly. Retail FUM rose from $31.426 billion at the end of July to $31.52 billion at the end of August. Institutional FUM also rose from $85.6 billion to $86.44 billion.
Meanwhile, Magellan's three investment strategies – Global Equities, Infrastructure Equities and Australian Equities – also all rose. Global saw its total value rise from $87.93 billion to $88.48 billion over the month.
Infrastructure rose from $19.59 billion to $19.85 billion, while Australian Equities upticked to $9.63 billion from $9.51 billion.
Investors FUM their noses
So with rising FUM numbers across the board, why are investors selling Magellan off on this news? Well, it's possible that the market was expecting a little more from this fund manager. August ended up being quite a fruitful month for both the ASX and global markets. As we covered last week, the ASX 200 Index managed a rise of 2.04% for August.
We also saw strong moves overseas too. The US markets' S&P 500 Index (INDEXSP: .INX) did even better, shooting up by more than 3% over the month just passed. This makes Magellan's overall FUM growth, as well as the performance of its equity portfolios, look a bit sluggish by comparison.
This may be what is weighing on the Magellan share price today. At the current pricing, Magellan has a market capitalisation of $7.99 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 30 and a dividend yield of 4.86%.
