The combination of an Average People Pillar rating and a Below Average Process Pillar rating limit  VanEck Oil Refiners ETF to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.  The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the second-cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant underweight position in liquidity exposure and volatility exposure compared with category peers. Low liquidity risk exposure is attributed to stocks with a low trading volume, limiting managers' flexibility. And low volatility exposure is rooted in stocks that have a lower standard deviation of returns. The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

Analyst Rating

Phillips 66

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Delek US Hlds

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Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category index on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. VanEck Oil Refiners ETF earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. The process is bolstered by tracking an index. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. However, the rating is held back by the fund's unimpressive long-term risk-adjusted performance. This can be seen in its five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process has struggled over that period. The parent firm's inferior risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 2.6 stars, also holds the rating back. A lower star rating suggests that the firm has struggled to outperform on a risk-adjusted basis.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is:  The investment seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS® Global Oil Refiners Index.  The fund normally invests at least 80% of its total assets in securities that comprise the fund's benchmark index. The index includes equity securities and depositary receipts of companies in the global oil refining segment. To be initially eligible for the Oil Refiners Index, companies must generate at least 50% of their revenues from crude oil refining. Products of these companies may include gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, naphtha, and and other petrochemicals. The fund is non-diversified. 

 The portfolio is overweight in energy by 12.4 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its consumer defensive allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are utilities and industrials, with utilities underweighting the average portfolio by 6.8 percentage points of assets and industrials similar to the average. The portfolio is positioned across 29 holdings and is relatively top-heavy. Of the strategy's assets, 60.3% are concentrated within the top 10 holdings, compared to the category’s 51.2% average. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 19% of the fund's holdings have changed, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Below Average

Process

VanEck’s  team is comparable to peers, resulting in an Average People Pillar rating. The fund takes a solo manager approach, with Peter Liao as the only listed manager at the helm, who brings 18 years of portfolio management experience to the table. They manage a total of 24 strategies, with solid long-term prospects. The strategies average a Bronze asset-weighted Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating a position to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate. With only one manager listed on the strategy, the passive strategy is vulnerable to key-person risk. 

 Note: This People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. Morningstar analysts evaluate the People Pillar for passive products at the brand level and may also differentiate by asset class. There is at least one other passive strategy at the firm that is covered by a Morningstar analyst, so the People Pillar rating of the fund is inherited from the rating that the Morningstar analyst assigned to investment vehicles under the same brand name.

Average

People

VanEck’s ownership structure and specialization make it unique among industry peers. The firm’s founding family and namesake still have control, and its product lineup still reflects its legacy as a specialist in niche market segments. VanEck earns an Average Parent Pillar rating. 

Founded by John van Eck in 1955, the firm staked its claim in the industry by capitalizing on burgeoning markets. Starting with the opening of Western Europe to U.S.-based investors in the wake of the Marshall Plan, VanEck’s largest and most successful products provide exposure to areas of the market that are off the beaten path, such as hard assets, emerging-markets debt, and below-investment-grade-rated corporate debt.

Through its history, VanEck has taken an opportunistic approach to product development. For instance, since 2018, VanEck has launched strategies that provide exposures ranging from international REITs to companies involved in video game development. Regardless of where their reach takes them, however, VanEck builds a case that the strategy will be relevant over the long term and that its risks must be easy to understand. However, not all its products catch on, and the firm has shuttered several offerings in the last decade. 

VanEck remains a privately held firm, wholly owned by CEO Jan van Eck and his family. Although this enables the firm to focus on the long term and the firm offers some employees participation in profits, the firm hasn’t used equity as a recruiting and retention tool and introduces some key-person risk in the executive suite.

Parent

VanEck Vectors Oil Refiners ETF

CRAK tracks a market-cap index of global stocks issued by firms that earn at least 50% of their revenue from oil refining.

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These sector ETFs are likely to be hurt if there is surge in oil prices.

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The CRAK ETF provides exposure to a portfolio of global refiners. A large gulf-coast refinery has been taken offline, tightening fuel markets. Tighter supply combined with expectations of Chinese stimulus could propel refiner stocks in the 2nd half of 2023.

CRAK: Buy Refiners On Potential Chinese Stimulus

CRAK is too tough to call, there are plenty of good reasons to see declines in the sector, and multiples are pricing in lots of problems. Crude prices get to stay higher because of exogenous supply cuts, but that's not happening in refining besides market-driven run-cuts while markets get used to Ukraine.

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Oil prices staged massive decline this week due to demand concerns owing to global growth slowdown.

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The CRAK ETF provides exposure to a portfolio of global refiners. Refiner margins have been rapidly rising in recent weeks as an EU embargo on Russian fuel products is set to go into effect in February.

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Among sectors, energy is standing out this year and oil refiners are getting in on the act. Take the case of the VanEck Vectors Oil Refiners ETF (CRAK).

Call on CRAK for Refining Profits

The S&P 500 Energy Index is up almost 60% year-to-date, easily making energy the best-performing sector, but even with those factors in mind, some analysts believe the group can continue its bullish ways. Among the energy segments some market observers are constructive on are oil services, and that could spell good news for exchange traded [.

News for VanEck Vectors Oil Refiners ETF ETF (CRAK)