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Is FlexShares Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt ETF (TLTE) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market ETFs category of the market, the FlexShares Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt ETF (TLTE - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 09/25/2012.

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.

By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.

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

TLTE is managed by Flexshares, and this fund has amassed over $237.91 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. TLTE seeks to match the performance of the Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt Index before fees and expenses.

The Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt Index reflects the performance of a selection of equity securities designed to provide broad exposure to the global emerging equities markets, with increased exposure to small-capitalization stocks and value stocks.

Cost & Other Expenses

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

Annual operating expenses for TLTE are 0.57%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 3.76%.

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.

When you look at individual holdings, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd Common accounts for about 4.73% of the fund's total assets, followed by Tencent Holdings Ltd Common Stock Hkd 0.00002 (0700.HK) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Common Stock Krw 100 (A005930).

The top 10 holdings account for about 14.48% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -0.73% so far this year and is up roughly 4.33% in the last one year (as of 01/16/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $48.60 and $58.58.

The ETF has a beta of 0.76 and standard deviation of 16.28% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 2956 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

FlexShares Morningstar Emerging Markets Factor Tilt 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.

IShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG - Free Report) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index and the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO - Free Report) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index. IShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $77.49 billion in assets, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has $78.25 billion. IEMG has an expense ratio of 0.09% and VWO charges 0.08%.

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.

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