Dimensional US Sustainability Core 1 ETF’s management team is rated Average, but a solid investment process still helps this strategy retain its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Silver. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's sensible investment philosophy merits an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in liquidity exposure and an underweight in quality exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And a low quality exposure is rooted in stocks with higher financial leverage and lower profitability. The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm a High 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

Apple

NVIDIA

Microsoft

Amazon

Alphabet

UnitedHealth Group

Broadcom

JPMorgan Chase & Co

Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. Dimensional US Sustainability Core 1 ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. 

The main contributor to the rating is the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 67%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. Excellent risk-adjusted performance also influences the rating. This can be seen in the fund's five-year information ratio calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. Lastly, the process is limited by being an actively managed strategy. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that actively managed funds have generally underperformed their passive counterparts, especially over longer time horizons.

 This strategy tends to hold smaller, more value-oriented companies compared with its average peer in the Large Blend Morningstar Category. Looking at additional factor exposure, this strategy has held more highly liquid stocks compared to Morningstar Category Peers in the past few years. More-liquid assets are easier to buy and sell without adversely moving their prices and tend to provide some ballast during market selloffs. They also are easier to sell to meet redemptions if a host of investors decide to leave the fund in a short period of time. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. The strategy has also had a defensive tilt, demonstrated by lower exposure to the quality factor than peers in recent years. This means the fund has avoided holding companies that are consistently profitable, growing, and have solid balance sheets. Such positions do not tend to provide much ballast for a portfolio. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to the Quality factor than peers. Additionally, the managers have consistently taken on more risk, demonstrated by higher volatility exposure than peers. This is a higher-risk, higher-reward approach. In this month, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor over its peers. More information on a fund and its respective category's factor exposure can be found in the Factor Profile module within the Portfolio section. 

 The portfolio is overweight in consumer cyclical by 2.7 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its industrials allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and real estate; however, the allocations are similar to the category. The portfolio is composed of 1,868 holdings and is less top-heavy than peers. Specifically, 23.8% of the portfolio's assets are concentrated within the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the category average's 48.8%.

Above Average

Process

Dimensional US Sustainability Core 1 ETF earns an Average People Pillar rating. Jed S. Fogdall, the longest-tenured manager on the strategy, provides strong guidance, bringing forward over 25 years of listed portfolio management experience. The average Morningstar Rating of the strategies they currently manage is 3.0 stars, reflecting average risk-adjusted performance in comparison to category peers. The team boasts an experienced corps of listed portfolio managers, with three others supporting Jed S. Fogdall. Together, they average 24 years of listed portfolio management experience. As a team, they manage eight investment vehicles together, with solid long-term prospects. The strategies average a Bronze asset-weighted Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating a position to deliver positive alpha in aggregate. None of the portfolio managers here invest in this fund. This hurts the rating because manager investment would align their interests with the strategy's investors.

 Note: The People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. The longest-tenured manager of the fund also manages a different product rated by an analyst. Their analyst-assigned People Pillar rating is combined here with the People scores (algorithmic or analyst-assigned) for the fund’s other managers on a tenure-weighted basis.

Average

People

Dimensional’s mutual fund business has faced some tough challenges over the past few years. Despite large and persistent outflows, the firm has remained steadfast in its philosophy and responded in a way that benefits clients while improving its competitiveness. Dimensional maintains its High Parent Pillar rating.

More than $80 billion left Dimensional’s mutual funds between 2020 and 2022, but its response to the turmoil has been admirable. The firm started reducing fees in early 2020, and it continued the effort with three additional rounds of cuts.

Dimensional’s endeavor into exchange-traded funds was the biggest step it took to shore up its business. The firm converted seven tax-managed mutual funds to ETFs between mid-2021 and mid-2022. Along the way, it launched an additional two dozen that largely follow the same strategies underpinning the existing mutual funds. The firm also reinvested in its separate accounts platform by bolstering the technology used to manage these portfolios. The effort was aimed at improving operational efficiencies.

These measures appear to be paying off. The firm’s new ETFs have proved popular among its clients. In 2022, they brought in enough new money to nearly offset the outflows from its mutual funds. The separate account platform’s operational improvements, along with the new ETF lineup’s tax efficiency, should benefit clients and strengthen the firm’s prospects.

High

Parent

Dimensional US Sustainability Core 1 ETF

DFSU is an actively managed ETF that aims to invest in a portfolio of US equities across all market-caps with perceived high profitability and positive sustainability characteristics.

Dimensional Emerging Markets Sustainability Core 1 ETF

Dimensional International Sustainability Core 1 ETF

Dimensional Fund Advisors on Wednesday listed three new equity sustainability exchange traded funds on the New York Stock Exchange. The new ETFs offer broadly diversified exposure to U.S., developed international, and emerging markets equities while applying climate-focused sustainability considerations.

News for Dimensional US Sustainability Core 1 ETF ETF (DFSU)