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Is American Century U.S. Quality Value ETF (VALQ) a Strong ETF Right Now?
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Making its debut on 01/11/2018, smart beta exchange traded fund American Century U.S. Quality Value ETF (VALQ - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - All Cap Value 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.
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.
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.
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
Managed by American Century Investments, VALQ has amassed assets over $304.39 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Value. VALQ, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the AMERICAN CENTURY U.S. QUALITY VALUE INDX.
The American Century U.S. Quality Value Index seeks to select securities of large and mid-capitalization companies that are undervalued or have sustainable income.
Cost & Other Expenses
Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.
With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.29%.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.82%.
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.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 30.2% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Lowe S Cos Inc Common Stock Usd.5 (LOW) accounts for about 2.71% of total assets, followed by Merck + Co. Inc. Common Stock Usd.5 (MRK) and Lockheed Martin Corp Common Stock Usd1.0 (LMT).
VALQ's top 10 holdings account for about 22.3% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF return is roughly 3.36% so far this year and it's up approximately 9.79% in the last one year (as of 01/27/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $54.09 and $68.77
VALQ has a beta of 0.86 and standard deviation of 12.80% for the trailing three-year period. With about 227 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
American Century U.S. Quality Value ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - All Cap Value segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
Fidelity High Dividend ETF (FDVV) tracks Fidelity Core Dividend Index and the iShares Core S&P U.S. Value ETF (IUSV) tracks S&P 900 Value Index. Fidelity High Dividend ETF has $8.31 billion in assets, iShares Core S&P U.S. Value ETF has $24.29 billion. FDVV has an expense ratio of 0.15% and IUSV changes 0.04%.
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 Value
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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Is American Century U.S. Quality Value ETF (VALQ) a Strong ETF Right Now?
Making its debut on 01/11/2018, smart beta exchange traded fund American Century U.S. Quality Value ETF (VALQ - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - All Cap Value 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.
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.
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.
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
Managed by American Century Investments, VALQ has amassed assets over $304.39 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Value. VALQ, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the AMERICAN CENTURY U.S. QUALITY VALUE INDX.
The American Century U.S. Quality Value Index seeks to select securities of large and mid-capitalization companies that are undervalued or have sustainable income.
Cost & Other Expenses
Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.
With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.29%.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.82%.
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.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 30.2% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Lowe S Cos Inc Common Stock Usd.5 (LOW) accounts for about 2.71% of total assets, followed by Merck + Co. Inc. Common Stock Usd.5 (MRK) and Lockheed Martin Corp Common Stock Usd1.0 (LMT).
VALQ's top 10 holdings account for about 22.3% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF return is roughly 3.36% so far this year and it's up approximately 9.79% in the last one year (as of 01/27/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $54.09 and $68.77
VALQ has a beta of 0.86 and standard deviation of 12.80% for the trailing three-year period. With about 227 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
American Century U.S. Quality Value ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - All Cap Value segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
Fidelity High Dividend ETF (FDVV) tracks Fidelity Core Dividend Index and the iShares Core S&P U.S. Value ETF (IUSV) tracks S&P 900 Value Index. Fidelity High Dividend ETF has $8.31 billion in assets, iShares Core S&P U.S. Value ETF has $24.29 billion. FDVV has an expense ratio of 0.15% and IUSV changes 0.04%.
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 Value
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.