Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is JPMorgan Diversified Return Emerging Markets Equity ETF (JPEM) a Strong ETF Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

The JPMorgan Diversified Return Emerging Markets Equity ETF (JPEM - Free Report) made its debut on 01/07/2015, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination 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

Managed by J.P. Morgan, JPEM has amassed assets over $249.35 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the FTSE Emerging Diversified Factor Index before fees and expenses.

The FTSE Emerging Diversified Factor Index are selected from advanced and secondary emerging markets strictly in accordance with guidelines and mandated procedures and are selected from constituents of the FTSE Emerging Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for JPEM are 0.44%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.76%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Taking into account individual holdings, Taiwan Semiconductor accounts for about 2.11% of the fund's total assets, followed by Naspers Ltd Common Stock (NPN) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI_D.).

JPEM's top 10 holdings account for about 14.16% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 2.96% so far this year and it's up approximately 14.52% in the last one year (as of 03/04/2021). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $36.19 and $58.37.

JPEM has a beta of 0.88 and standard deviation of 22.66% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 501 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

JPMorgan Diversified Return Emerging Markets Equity ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Broad Emerging Market ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO - Free Report) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG - Free Report) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has $76.73 billion in assets, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $77.63 billion. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.10% and IEMG charges 0.11%.

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.

Published in