Is FlexShares Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt ETF (TLTE) a Strong ETF Right Now?
Making its debut on 09/25/2012, smart beta exchange traded fund FlexShares Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt ETF (TLTE) provides investors broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.
This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix of such characteristics.
While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Flexshares, and has been able to amass over $331.21 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. TLTE, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt Index.
The Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt Index reflects the performance of a selection of equity securities designed to provide broad exposure to the global emerging equities markets, with increased exposure to small-capitalization stocks and value stocks.
Cost & Other Expenses
Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.59% for TLTE, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
TLTE's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 3.15%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Taking into account individual holdings, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Common Stock Krw 100 (A005930) accounts for about 3.09% of the fund's total assets, followed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd Common and Tencent Holdings Ltd Common Stock Hkd 0.00002 (0700.HK).
The top 10 holdings account for about 13.82% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has gained about 1.23% so far this year and is up roughly 2.02% in the last one year (as of 01/14/2022). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $57.26 and $66.54.
TLTE has a beta of 0.89 and standard deviation of 21.71% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 2622 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
FlexShares Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt ETF is not a suitable option for investors seeking to outperform the Broad Emerging Market ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are other ETFs in the space which investors should consider.
IShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index and the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index. IShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $78.31 billion in assets, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has $80.75 billion. IEMG has an expense ratio of 0.11% and VWO charges 0.10%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Broad Emerging Market ETFs.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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FlexShares Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt ETF (TLTE): ETF Research Reports
iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG): ETF Research Reports
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO): ETF Research Reports
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