Eaton Vance Total Return Bond 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 earns it a High Process Pillar rating. 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

Morgan Stanley ETF Trust - Eaton Vance Floating-Rate ETF

Morgan Stanley ETF Trust - Eaton Vance Ultra-Short Income ETF

Morningstar's evaluation of this fund's process seeks to understand management's investment philosophy, and whether it has been applied consistently over time and can add value across the market cycle. Eaton Vance Total Return Bond ETF earns a High Process Pillar rating.    The main driver of the rating is its parent firm's excellent long-term risk-adjusted performance, as shown by the firm's average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.4 stars. The parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 62% also contributes to the process. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. Their impressive success ratio suggests that the firm does well for investors and that this fund may benefit from that. The stability of the management team further contributes to the process. Specifically, the fund has not seen a manager change in the last 39 years.

 The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is as follows: 


The investment seeks above-average total return over a market cycle of three to five years.  Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the fund’s net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) will be invested in fixed-income securities. The fund invests primarily in a diversified mix of U.S. dollar-denominated investment grade fixed-income securities, including U.S. government, corporate, municipal, and mortgage- and asset-backed securities.

 This strategy has a 5.8% 12-month yield, higher than its average peer's 3.9%. Higher yields tend to indicate higher credit risk.

High

Process

Eaton Vance Total Return Bond ETF earns an Average People Pillar rating. Vishal Khanduja, the longest-tenured manager on the strategy, provides strong guidance, offering over 25 years of listed portfolio management experience. The average Morningstar Rating of the strategies they manage is 3.9 stars, demonstrating above-average risk-adjusted performance versus category peers. Vishal Khanduja is supported by an experienced team, being able to draw on three additional listed managers, who average over 35 years of listed portfolio management experience.  

 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

Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the asset-management arm of Morgan Stanley MS, has made progress in integrating Eaton Vance's capabilities, but there remains more to be done. It retains its Average Parent rating.
Since acquiring Eaton Vance in March 2021, MSIM has been conservative in its approach to the merger. The firm kept Eaton Vance's legacy equity team a distinct platform from MSIM's own substantial capabilities, and it now offers several funds with potentially competing mandates. On the other hand, it moved relatively quickly to centralize the two legacy firms' fixed-income platforms, though several team leaders retired or departed the firm over 2021 and 2022. 
Although Counterpoint Global's concentrated growth strategies, historically among MSIM's largest offerings, have struggled through 2021 and 2022, some of Eaton Vance's boutiques, including value-equity shop Atlanta Capital, help create a more-diversified lineup. MSIM has leveraged Calvert's substantial experience in sustainable investing to launch a series of Calvert-branded strategies both in the United States and Europe, and Parametric allows MSIM to compete in the fast-growing area of customized separate accounts. The firm has yet to demonstrate, however, that it has leveraged its increased size and scale to streamline and improve its operations or to systematically lower fees for its investors.

Parent

Eaton Vance Total Return Bond ETF

EVTR is an actively managed fund that aims to invest in USD-denominated, investment grade securities from government and corporate issuers. The fund aims to maintain an average weighted maturity between five and ten years.

The Federal Reserve remains in a holding pattern over interest rates after the latest FOMC meeting. Bond investors now balance the potential risks and rewards of taking on longer-duration exposures in the current environment.

Is Now a Good Entry Point for Bonds?

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On Monday, Morgan Stanley Investment Management added two new ETFs to their extensive fund portfolio. The Eaton Vance Total Return Bond ETF (NYSE Arca: EVTR) and the Eaton Vance Short Duration Municipal Income ETF (NYSE Arca: EVSM) were both converted from existing mutual funds into the ETF wrapper.

Morgan Stanley Converts 2 Mutual Funds Into Active ETFs

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Morgan Stanley Investment Management (“MSIM”) today announced it has completed the conversion of two fixed income mutual funds to exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”). With these two additions, MSIM has introduced 14 ETFs since the launch of the ETF platform last year and has more than $1 billion in assets under management. The below two strategies are available as ETFs as of today: Mutual Fund ETF ETF Ticker MSIFT Core Plus Fixed Income Portfolio Eaton Vance Total Return B.

News for Eaton Vance Total Return Bond ETF ETF (EVTR)