The Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX: PTM) share price is not having a great start to the week today. At the time of writing, Platinum shares are down 3.57% to $4.86 a share after closing at $5.04 on Friday afternoon. In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is currently down just 0.5%.
It's a rare 2021 pullback for Platinum, which has seen its share price rise more than 17% year to date so far. So why is the Platinum share price underperforming so convincingly today?
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Ebbs and flows for Platinum shares
The Platinum share price is almost certainly reacting today to an ASX release the company made last week after market close on Friday. This announcement was a monthly funds under management (FUM) disclosure that the asset manager regularly reported to the market. This was was for the month of March. It reported that Platinum experienced an outflow of $206 million over the month of March. It started the month with $24.853 billion in funds under management, and ended the month with $24.5 billion in FUM. That's a decrease of 1.42%.
Platinum did note that $41 million of that outflow was from the Platinum Trust Funds. It also noted that "$99 million of the total net outflow is related to one client rebalancing their portfolio". That's quite common for large or institutional investors to do at the end of a quarter. Even so, it's arguably not exactly a good look for a fund manager like Platinum to lose this much in outflows over March when both the ASX 200 Index and the US S&P 500 Index (INDEXSP: .INX) both had strong months.
Platinum, through its chief investment officer Andrew Clifford, has recently made headlines decrying the market "mania" of recent months. In a recent investment letter, Mr Clifford stated that "ever-lower bond yields further fuelled the speculative mania in growth and defensive stocks". He went further in a recent investor presentation, stating "When you hear people say this is not like the 2000s tech bubble, I must say I agree. This is a much bigger bubble. The question is when does it end".
An interesting sentiment (and some bold predictions) there. Mr Clifford might end up being proven right by history. But judging by the Platinum outflows, investors might not be on board just yet.
