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Is Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta World Low Vol Plus Equity ETF (GLOV) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta World Low Vol Plus Equity ETF (GLOV - Free Report) was launched on 03/15/2022, 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 traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

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.

But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

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 Goldman Sachs Funds, and has been able to amass over $706.36 million, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the World ETFs. GLOV seeks to match the performance of the GOLDMAN SACHS ACTBT WORLD LW VL PL EQ ID before fees and expenses.

The Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta World Low Vol Plus Equity Index delivers exposure to large and mid-capitalization equity securities of developed market issuers, including the United States.

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.

Annual operating expenses for GLOV are 0.25%, which makes it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 2.03%.

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.

Taking into account individual holdings, Apple Inc (AAPL - Free Report) accounts for about 2.98% of the fund's total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT - Free Report) and Oreilly Automotive Inc (ORLY - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 13.3% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 6.84% and is up roughly 11.50% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 06/26/2023), respectively. GLOV has traded between $34.82 and $41.48 during this last 52-week period.

GLOV has a beta of 0.76 and standard deviation of 16.35% for the trailing three-year period. With about 401 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta World Low Vol Plus Equity 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.

IShares MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWI - Free Report) tracks MSCI All Country World Index and the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT - Free Report) tracks FTSE Global All Cap Index. IShares MSCI ACWI ETF has $17.43 billion in assets, Vanguard Total World Stock ETF has $27.80 billion. ACWI has an expense ratio of 0.32% and VT charges 0.07%.

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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