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Is John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF (JHMM) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend category of the market, the John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF (JHMM - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 09/28/2015.

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.

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.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.

Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

Managed by John Hancock, JHMM has amassed assets over $4.55 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the John Hancock Dimensional Mid Cap Index before fees and expenses.

The John Hancock Dimensional Mid Cap Index comprises of a subset of securities in the U.S. Universe issued by companies whose market capitalizations are between the 200th and 951st largest U.S. company.

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 JHMM are 0.41%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.98%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector - about 20.1% of the portfolio. Financials and Information Technology round out the top three.

Taking into account individual holdings, Western Digital Corp (WDC) accounts for about 0.55% of the fund's total assets, followed by Hartford Insurance Group Inc (HIG) and Warner Bros Discovery Inc (WBD).

JHMM's top 10 holdings account for about 4.49% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added about 9.9% so far this year and is up roughly 2.1% in the last one year (as of 11/27/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $50.32 and $65.54

JHMM has a beta of 1.06 and standard deviation of 16.71% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 670 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO) tracks CRSP US Mid Cap Index and the iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF (IJH) tracks S&P MidCap 400 Index. Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF has $89.06 billion in assets, iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF has $101.32 billion. VO has an expense ratio of 0.04% and IJH changes 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 Style Box - Mid 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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