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Is Vident International Equity Strategy ETF (VIDI) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Vident International Equity Strategy ETF (VIDI - Free Report) was launched on 10/29/2013, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the World 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 work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide a low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns.

There are some investors, though, who think it's possible to beat the market with great stock selection; this group likely invests in another class of funds known as smart beta, which track non-cap weighted strategies.

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.

This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Vident Financial, and has been able to amass over $340.15 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the World ETFs. VIDI seeks to match the performance of the Vident International Equity Index before fees and expenses.

The Vident Core International Equity Index is an international equity index that combines principles-based country and securities selection with sophisticated risk management. The index balances risk across developed and emerging economies and emphasizes those with favorable conditions for growth.

Cost & Other Expenses

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.61% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 4.99%.

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, Cash & Other (Cash&Other) accounts for about 1.11% of the fund's total assets, followed by Tripod Technology and Centrica (CNA - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 6.79% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the Vident International Equity Strategy ETF has added roughly 2.73% so far, and was up about 15.05% over the last 12 months (as of 10/23/2023). VIDI has traded between $19.63 and $24.52 in this past 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 0.94 and standard deviation of 16.59% for the trailing three-year period, which makes VIDI a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 247 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Vident International Equity Strategy ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the World ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS - Free Report) tracks FTSE Global All Cap ex US Index and the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA - Free Report) tracks FTSE Developed All Cap ex US Index. Vanguard Total International Stock ETF has $54.44 billion in assets, Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF has $105.31 billion. VXUS has an expense ratio of 0.07% and VEA charges 0.05%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the World 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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