WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Eq ETF’s management team is rated Average, but a solid investment process still helps this strategy retain its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the second-lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's effective investment philosophy supports a High Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in yield exposure and an underweight in quality exposure compared with category peers. High yield exposure is attributed to holding high dividend-paying or buyback stocks, and is suitable for income seekers outside of fixed-income. 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 Below 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

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Regions Financial

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. WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Eq Fd earns a High Process Pillar rating. 

The most important driver of the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Strong risk-adjusted performance also bolsters the rating. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. The parent firm's strong risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.4 stars, contributes to the process as well.

 This strategy tends to hold smaller, more value-oriented companies compared with its average peer in the Europe Stock Morningstar Category. Examining additional factor exposure, this strategy has continually displayed high-yield exposure compared with Morningstar Category peers during recent years, holding more companies returning cash to shareholders via dividends or buybacks. Higher-yield stocks can provide steady income, but also have their risks. Dividend payers may cut payouts, for instance, if their earnings fall. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Yield factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy has also favored low-quality stocks. This means the fund avoids holding companies that are consistently profitable, growing, and have solid balance sheets. Lacking this ballast, the fund's prospects could rest on its ability to beat peers during economic booms. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to the Quality factor than peers. Moreover, this strategy has been underweighting momentum stocks during these years. Momentum tends to be a powerful force in asset markets, as stocks that have done well recently usually continue to do so in the short term. As top performers change, this can sometimes be hard to capture without higher trading costs. In recent months, the strategy also had less Momentum factor exposure than 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 real estate and industrials relative to the category average by 7.2 and 4.9 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are healthcare and consumer defensive, underweight the average by 9.4 and 6.6 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is composed of 235 holdings and is diversified among those holdings. In its most recent portfolio, 18.4% of the portfolio's assets were concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the category’s 21.8% average. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 44% of the fund's holdings have changed, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

High

Process

WisdomTree’s team is good but unexceptional, earning the strategy an Average People Pillar rating. There’s a sizable bench of five managers listed on the fund. Together, they manage a total of 113 strategies, with a Bronze asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating the potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate.  

 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

WisdomTree is improving, but its shaky global fund lineup and uncertain trajectory hold its rating to Below Average. 

WisdomTree’s research organization has long been a strength. Under CIO Jeremy Schwartz, the team has generated creative, economically sound ideas and evolved them into investable products, like the efficient core series. A recent focus on investor education spawned the Portfolio Analysis Tools Hub, an online platform that taps the team’s brainpower to help investors make better investment decisions.

The firm’s product lineup is a mixed bag. To complement its core lineup of fundamentally weighted strategies, WisdomTree has recently launched funds targeting established factors instead of trendy themes—an encouraging reorientation. Yet the shutdown of WisdomTree U.S. Growth and Momentum ETF calls WisdomTree’s commitment to these funds into question, and vestiges from its laxer product-development era look ripe for closure. Its European lineup features risky trading tools that are hard for investors to use well. 

WisdomTree’s future may hinge on WisdomTree Prime, its blockchain-based digital wallet. The launch reflects founder and CEO Jonathan Steinberg’s conviction in the disruptive potential of the blockchain. Prime shouldn’t hurt WisdomTree fund investors (most funds on the platform are zero-fee), but it may distract the firm from shoring up its core offering.

Below Average

Parent

WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund

EUSC tracks an index of dividend-paying, eurozone small-cap equities that hedges out EUR/USD FX moves for US investors.

JPMorgan BetaBuilders Europe ETF

Xtrackers MSCI Europe Hedged Equity ETF

Xtrackers MSCI Eurozone Hedged Equity ETF

WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund

WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund

ProShares MSCI Europe Dividend Growers ETF

Direxion Daily FTSE Europe Bull 3X Shares

iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF

First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund

First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund

First Trust Eurozone AlphaDEX ETF

SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF

Franklin FTSE Europe ETF

Franklin FTSE Eurozone ETF

First Trust IPOX Europe Equity Opportunities ETF

Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Europe Equity ETF

WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Eurozone ETF

iShares Core MSCI Europe ETF

iShares MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF

iShares Europe ETF

ALPS O'Shares Europe Quality Dividend ETF Shares

Pacer Trendpilot European Index ETF

First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Europe ETF

SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF

Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF

The PMI increased from 50.3 to 51.4 in April, suggesting that the eurozone economy is finally leaving stagnation and returning to growth at the start of the second quarter. Inflationary pressures remain for the service sector, but don't expect this to deter the ECB from cutting rates.

Eurozone PMI Signals A Pickup In Growth

ProShares UltraShort Euro

Invesco CurrencyShares Euro Trust

ProShares Ultra Euro

Along with rising speculation of EUR/USD approaching parity, the old question of how the European Central Bank should react to exchange rate movements is returning. We think that the falling euro is not the ECB's biggest concern on the road to a June rate cut.

A Falling Euro Is Not The ECB's Biggest Headache

Global X DAX Germany ETF

iShares MSCI Germany ETF

iShares MSCI France ETF

First Trust Germany AlphaDEX Fund

Franklin FTSE France ETF

Franklin FTSE Germany ETF

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Germany ETF

Business activity in the euro area came close to stabilising in March, as provisional PMI® survey data registered only a marginal decline in output of goods and services.

Eurozone Flash PMI Shows Economy Close To Stabilising In March, Price Pressures Ease

The eurozone escaped a technical recession, and a number of indicators suggest the economy is now bottoming out. The ECB is expected to cut rates from June onwards, but more cautiously than the market is currently anticipating.

The Eurozone Economy Is Bottoming Out

The flash estimate shows a decline in eurozone HICP inflation from 2.9% to 2.8% in January, with core inflation declining to 3.3% from 3.4% in December. However, it's too soon to declare victory in the inflation battle. As industry and retail are still struggling with excess inventories, non-energy industrial goods price inflation continues to fall and now stands at 2%.

Eurozone Headline Inflation Falls, But 'Core' Disappoints

Xtrackers MSCI Germany Hedged Equity ETF

iShares MSCI Germany Small Cap ETF

German Inflation Drops To Its Lowest Level Since June 2021

iShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF

The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged, without conveying any urgency to start cutting rates in the next few months. It seems most likely that June or July would be the preferred time to start cutting rates.

ECB In Little Rush To Cut Rates

Business activity in the euro area fell at the slowest rate for six months in January, according to provisional PMI survey data. The PMI in fact suggests that the Eurozone is enduring its deepest contraction since 2013 (if early pandemic months are excluded), albeit with recent months hinting at a bottoming out of the downturn.

Eurozone Prices Rise At Increased Rate At Start Of 2024 As Downturn Moderates

Insurers likely face a very different investment regime today than they have in the past, with higher and more volatile interest rates as well as structurally higher inflation.

Brave New World: 2024 European Insurance Outlook

Europe managed to avoid an energy crisis despite the Ukraine war, with inflation under control and interest rates peaking. The European Central Bank is expected to lead interest rate cuts, followed by the Bank of England and Scandinavian central banks.

Europe: Big Changes Coming, Good Time To Diversify One's Portfolio

The first question for next week's European Central Bank meeting is how the Bank will react to current market pricing. The second, however, is why should the ECB react to current market pricing.

ECB Preview: Resisting The Pushback

Like their peers in the US, European stocks enjoyed quite a rally over the last two months of the year. In early December the STOXX 600 broke out above the resistance of the summer highs, and while momentum has slowed in the last couple of weeks, earlier this week the index experienced a golden cross.

European Golden Cross

The European Central Bank (ECB) kept its key policy rates on hold today for the second consecutive meeting. The interest rate on the main refinancing operations, the marginal lending facility, and the deposit facility remain at 4.5%, 4.75% and 4.0%, respectively.

December ECB Meeting: A More Hawkish Stance Than The Fed

The ECB will almost surely keep rates on hold at the December meeting. The question is to what extent it will align with the market's aggressive pricing for rate cuts in 2024.

December's ECB Cheat Sheet: A Reality Check For Ultra-Dovish Expectations

The ECB hike cycle seems over, but the shockwaves of tightening will still shape the eurozone economy in 2024. Traditional lags in transmission are now accompanied by longer ones in average interest burden increases, potentially extending the impact of tightening.

2024 Set To Be The Year That The ECB Hike Cycle Is Felt

Next week's challenge for the European Central Bank is how to keep all options open without sounding too dovish but also not too detached from reality. The weak macro economic backdrop no longer justifies rate hikes, even for the hawks.

ECB Preview: The Long Dovish Shift

Slowing inflation, a cooling labour market, and lower expected corporate revenues make a peak in wage growth before the middle of next year likely. While the European Central Bank waits for clarity, this should open the door to earlier rate cuts than currently expected.

Eurozone Wage Growth Is Set To Peak Soon

After hitting a new all-time high in February, the FTSE has struggled to find any sustainable support, hurt by concerns over China, the UK's struggling economy, and high interest rates across the world. We have had some positive data out of China, the UK, and the US this week, which may mean the worst days are behind us.

FTSE Lags EU And U.S. Markets, But Time For Catch Up With Global Indices?

Real GDP growth was minus one percent for the third quarter, while the PMI Index, a measure of economic health, has been in contractionary territory since the middle of this summer. Draghi's concerns about the Eurozone's economic prospects center on the fear that the region is falling further behind both the US and China in terms of global competitiveness.

Europe's Ongoing Malaise

Rising wages and higher incomes are boosting Europe's economic recovery, but policymakers may face challenges due to population aging and shrinking workforce. Demographics and shorter working weeks mean employers face fierce competition to find qualified workers and must pay more to retain them.

Europe's Wage Rises Are Aiding Recovery But Economies Face Risks

Eurozone growth turned negative in the third quarter and the next two quarters don't look very promising either. With inflation declining, the case for an additional rate hike is disappearing.

The Eurozone Is Flirting With Recession

Businesses report a slight tick-up in selling price expectations, but hard data still looks benign. Decline in the Economic Sentiment Indicator in October came as no surprise after the PMI had already dropped further into contraction territory.

Eurozone Economy Braces Itself For Prolonged Sluggishness

The European Central Bank increasingly seems to embrace the idea that the peak in policy rates has already been reached. After 10 consecutive hikes, the ECB's decision to leave policy rates unchanged should have been an easy one.

ECB: A Dovish Pause Now, A Peak Soon

With the exception of a brief period of growth during the opening quarter of 2023, euro area manufacturing output has decreased continuously since the middle of 2022. The downturn in new orders and the accelerated depletion of backlogs of orders prompted firms to reduce employment for the first time since January 2021.

Rising Recession Risks As Eurozone Flash PMI Falls In October, Price Pressures Ease Further

If anything, developments since the September meeting have made it even easier for the European Central Bank to pause at its next meeting. As much as the ECB has tried to keep the door to further rate hikes open since the September decision, recent developments have clearly complicated this position.

News for WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund ETF (EUSC)