Gross's top fund suffered $3.1 billion in losses in April

Bill Gross's Pimco Total Return Fund suffered its 12th straight month of withdrawals in April as the world's largest bond fund trailed peers. Clients withdrew an estimated $3.1 billion from Pacific Investment Management Co.'s $230 billion fund, matching redemptions in March, Morningstar Inc. said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. The outflows represented about 1.3% of assets as of March 31, Morningstar said. Mr. Gross, 70, has missed the rally in long-dated Treasuries in 2014 by concentrating on shorter-maturity bonds after last year misjudging the timing and impact of the Federal Reserve's plan to reduce stimulus. His fund has declined 1.7% in the past year, trailing 90% of similar funds. This year, the fund has advanced 2.1%, lagging behind 71% of rivals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Pimco Total Return Fund, a formerly top-ranked fund whose five-year ranking has slipped to the 59th percentile, lost money to redemptions last month even as investors started returning to fixed income. Industrywide, taxable bond funds attracted money in the first three weeks of April, according to the Investment Company Institute. Investors pulled a record $41.1 billion from Pimco Total Return in 2013, according to Morningstar. They've removed $11.3 billion from the fund so far this year, the data show. Morningstar estimates deposits or withdrawals for mutual funds on a monthly basis by computing the change in assets that isn't accounted for by performance. The fund's actual withdrawals or deposits may differ from Morningstar's estimates because of the timing of purchases and redemptions or dividend distributions. (Bloomberg News)