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Is FlexShares Morningstar U.S. Market Factor Tilt ETF (TILT) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - All Cap Blend category of the market, the FlexShares Morningstar U.S. Market Factor Tilt ETF (TILT - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 09/16/2011.

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.

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.

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.

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

The fund is managed by Flexshares. TILT has been able to amass assets over $1.78 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Blend. Before fees and expenses, this particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Morningstar U.S. Market Factor Tilt Index.

The Morningstar U.S. Market Factor Tilt Index measures the performance of U.S. equity markets with increased exposure toward small-capitalization and value stocks.

Cost & Other Expenses

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for TILT are 0.25%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.24%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.

Representing 23.30% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Information Technology sector; Financials and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.

Taking into account individual holdings, Apple Inc Common Stock Usd 0.00001 (AAPL - Free Report) accounts for about 4.45% of the fund's total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp Common Stock Usd 0.00000625 (MSFT - Free Report) and Nvidia Corp Common Stock Usd 0.001 (NVDA - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 22.79% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added roughly 23.23% and it's up approximately 37.37% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 11/13/2024), respectively. TILT has traded between $168.78 and $224.40 during this last 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 1.08 and standard deviation of 18.07% for the trailing three-year period, which makes TILT a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 1921 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

FlexShares Morningstar U.S. Market Factor Tilt ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - All Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

IShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT - Free Report) tracks S&P Total Market Index and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI - Free Report) tracks CRSP US Total Market Index. IShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF has $64.94 billion in assets, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has $460.86 billion. ITOT has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VTI charges 0.03%.

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 - All 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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