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

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Making its debut on 10/29/2013, smart beta exchange traded fund Vident International Equity Strategy ETF (VIDI - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the World 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.

A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer 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.

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 $377.20 million, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the World ETFs. Before fees and expenses, VIDI seeks to match the performance of the Vident International Equity Index.

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

For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.61%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 3.78%.

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.

Looking at individual holdings, Cash & Other (Cash&Other) accounts for about 0.71% of total assets, followed by Volvo Car Ab (VOLCARB) and Stellantis Nv (STLAM).

The top 10 holdings account for about 6.43% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, VIDI has gained about 4.27%, and was up about 15.33% in the last one year (as of 05/10/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $21.52 and $25.66.

VIDI has a beta of 0.95 and standard deviation of 15.80% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 240 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 $70.82 billion in assets, Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF has $132.47 billion. VXUS has an expense ratio of 0.08% 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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