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

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

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the 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.

Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other 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 sponsored by Flexshares. It has amassed assets over $1.87 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Blend. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Morningstar U.S. Market Factor Tilt Index before fees and expenses.

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

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 0.25%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 1.21%.

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.

TILT's heaviest allocation is in the Information Technology sector, which is about 24.4% of the portfolio. Its Financials and Industrials round out the top three.

Taking into account individual holdings, Nvidia Corp Common Stock Usd 0.001 (NVDA) accounts for about 4.75% of the fund's total assets, followed by Apple Inc Common Stock Usd 0.00001 (AAPL) and Microsoft Corp Common Stock Usd 0.00000625 (MSFT).

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 24.14% of TILT's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -2.07% and it's up approximately 19.24% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 04/02/2026), respectively. TILT has traded between $181.13 and $257.57 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.02 and standard deviation of 15.19% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 1915 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) tracks S&P Total Market Index and the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares (VTI) tracks CRSP US Total Market Index. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF has $80.25 billion in assets, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares has $560.41 billion. ITOT has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VTI changes 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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