Franklin FTSE Europe ETF's Average Process Pillar and People Pillar ratings result in a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy earns an Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an underweight position in quality exposure and an overweight in yield exposure compared with category peers. Low quality exposure is attributed to stocks with higher financial leverage and lower profitability. And a high yield exposure is rooted in holding high dividend-paying or buyback stocks. 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

ASML Hld

National Energy Services Reunited

Shell PLC

Moelis

AstraZeneca

SAP SE

Novan

Rogers

TotalEnergies SE

Suncor Energy

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. Franklin FTSE Europe ETF earns an Average Process Pillar rating. The most notable contributor to the rating is that this fund tracks 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. Impressive risk-adjusted performance also supports the process. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process was successful over that period. Lastly, the process is limited by the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 37%. 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. The parent's subpar success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is:  The investment seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the FTSE Developed Europe RIC Capped Index (the FTSE Developed Europe Capped Index).  Under normal market conditions, and the fund invests at least 80% of its assets in the component securities of the FTSE Developed Europe Capped Index and in depositary receipts representing such securities. The FTSE Developed Europe Capped Index is based on the FTSE Developed Europe Index and is designed to measure the performance of large- and mid-capitalization stocks from developed European countries. 

 The portfolio is overweight in healthcare by 2.9 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its energy allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and consumer cyclical, with technology underweighting the average portfolio by 2.6 percentage points of assets and consumer cyclical similar to the average. The portfolio has 547 holdings and is similarly diversified as peers, with 21.4% of portfolio assets concentrated within the top 10 holdings. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 5% of the fund's holdings have changed, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Average

Process

Franklin Templeton’s team is good but unexceptional, earning the strategy an Average People Pillar rating. There are four managers listed on the fund: Hailey Harris, Basit Amin, Dina Ting, Joe Diederich. Together, they manage a total of 32 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.  

 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.

People

Franklin Templeton Investments, the asset-management arm of publicly traded but family managed Franklin Resources BEN, has been busy with acquisitions. The struggle in streamlining these disparate capabilities underpins its Average Parent rating. 
Franklin’s July 2020 acquisition of multiboutique manager Legg Mason remains its largest as of March 2023, but the firm has continued to grow through acquisitions. Its April 2022 and November 2022 purchases of Lexington Partners and Alcentra, respectively, make it one of world’s largest managers of alternative investments (with alts comprising USD 231 billion of its USD 1.4 trillion assets under management as of December 2022), while its July 2022 acquisition of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management adds a novel direct-indexing capability to its managed account offerings. These purchases, however, do little to alleviate the operational complexity of a firm with dozens of investment teams split by asset class, region, and investment platform.   
Although there are several standout strategies at the firm, many teams have struggled with personnel turnover, succession challenges, and unappealing performance patterns. Shepherding these geographically disparate capabilities, which have varying levels of centralization of distribution and risk management, shall be quite the challenge for the firm to manage.

Parent

Franklin FTSE Europe ETF

FLEE tracks a market cap-weighted index of large- and mid-cap stocks in developed European countries.

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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

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.

ECB Preview: The Best Moment To Pause

Tighter monetary policy is starting to work. Alternatives would be more costly. So far, so good. These words are probably a fair assessment of Europe's progress thus far in its struggle against inflation.

Europe Must Succeed In Restoring Price Stability

Eurozone business activity remained in contraction at the end of the third quarter of the year, as an increased rate of loss of orders led to a further decline in activity. The overall reduction in output was again led by manufacturing, but the service sector saw activity decrease for the second month running.

News for Franklin FTSE Europe ETF ETF (FLEE)