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Is Franklin U.S. Large Cap Multifactor Index ETF (FLQL) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Franklin U.S. Large Cap Multifactor Index ETF (FLQL - Free Report) made its debut on 04/26/2017, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.

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

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.

Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other 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

Because the fund has amassed over $908.61 million, this makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Blend. FLQL is managed by Franklin Templeton Investments. FLQL seeks to match the performance of the LibertyQ US Large Cap Equity Index before fees and expenses.

The LibertyQ US Large Cap Equity Index seeks to achieve a lower level of risk and higher risk-adjusted performance than the Russell 1000 Index over the long term by applying a multi-factor selection process, which is designed to select equity securities from the Russell 1000 Index that have favorable exposure to four investment style factors quality, value, momentum and low volatility.

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.

With one of the cheaper products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.15%.

FLQL's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 2.06%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For FLQL, it has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector --about 28.10% of the portfolio --while Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.

Taking into account individual holdings, Apple Inc (AAPL - Free Report) accounts for about 6.55% of the fund's total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT - Free Report) and Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM - Free Report) .

FLQL's top 10 holdings account for about 23.75% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -14.09% so far this year and is down about -13.03% in the last one year (as of 12/27/2022). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $36.61 and $47.20.

FLQL has a beta of 0.91 and standard deviation of 23.56% for the trailing three-year period. With about 218 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Franklin U.S. Large Cap Multifactor Index ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Blend segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

IShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV - Free Report) tracks S&P 500 Index and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY - Free Report) tracks S&P 500 Index. IShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $290.06 billion in assets, SPDR S&P 500 ETF has $362.55 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and SPY charges 0.09%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Blend.

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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