iShares Frontier and Select EM ETF’s Process Pillar rating is Average, but a strong management team still helps this strategy retain its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Bronze. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the least expensive fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy gets an Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a substantial underweight position in quality exposure and has 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 parent organization earns the firm an Above 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

KCAP Financial Inc 7 3/8 % Notes 2012-30.9.19 Sr

VanEck Vectors Vietnam ETF

China Petroleum & Chemical

I-AM Capital Acquisition Company

Credicorp

Emerson Radio

Southern Copper

Atwood Oceanics

Otelco

Stage Stores

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. iShares Frontier and Select EM ETF earns an Average Process Pillar rating. 

The most substantial contributor to the rating is the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 57%. 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. The firm's five-year retention rate of 82% also contributes to the process. Lastly, the process is limited by its parent firm's risk-adjusted performance, as shown by the firm's average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.1 stars. A lower star rating suggests that the firm has struggled to outperform on a risk-adjusted basis.

 This strategy skews toward smaller, more undervalued companies compared with its average peer in the Diversified Emerging Mkts Morningstar Category. Examining additional factor exposure, this strategy has consistently favored low-quality stocks compared with Morningstar Category peers over the past few years.  Lacking this ballast, the fund's prospects will rest on its ability to supersede peers during economic booms. In the latest month, the strategy was also less exposed to the Quality factor compared with Morningstar Category peers. This strategy has also displayed a tendency to hold more companies with high dividend or buyback yields than peers over recent years. Higher-yield stocks can provide dependable income, but also have their risks. Dividend payers may cut payouts, for instance, if their earnings fall. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Yield factor in the most recent month. Additionally, the strategy had more exposure to high-momentum stocks compared with Morningstar Category peers in recent months. Momentum is based on the premise that market outperformers will continue to outperform, and laggards will continue to lag. This means that managers are overweighting stocks currently on a winning streak.  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 financial services relative to the category average by 9.2 and 7.1 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and consumer cyclical, underweight the average by 15.8 and 11.4 percentage points of assets, respectively. The strategy owns 177 securities and is relatively top-heavy. Of the strategy's assets, 30.9% are concentrated within the top 10 holdings, compared to the typical peer's 27.2%. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, this fund trades more frequently than its average peer, potentially racking up additional expenses for investors and creating a drag on performance.

Average

Process

iShares Frontier and Select EM ETF earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. Greg Savage, the longest-tenured manager on the strategy, provides strong guidance, bringing forward 16 years of portfolio management experience. The average Morningstar Rating of the strategies they currently manage is 3.2 stars, reflecting average risk-adjusted performance relative to category peers. Greg Savage has an experienced backdrop of support. The three listed managers boast 17 years of average portfolio management experience. As a team, they manage 258 investment vehicles together, with a Silver asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, demonstrating their potential to deliver positive alpha in aggregate. 

 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.

Above Average

People

BlackRock offers compelling options across asset classes and vehicles. It earns an Above Average rating for Parent. 
The firm’s approximately USD 8 trillion in assets under management, as of Sept. 30, 2022, gives it unparalleled scale and influence. It is a market-leading index fund provider globally, and its iShares exchange-traded fund franchise offers a low-cost lineup of core funds that investors can use to build a well-diversified portfolio for dirt cheap. The firm can be more adventurous in its ETF launches than some peers, so not everything it launches is appropriate for the masses. As a result, it is likely to have more ETF closures than peers that stick to the basic building blocks.  
The firm’s active fixed-income and multi-asset efforts also stand out as some of the best in the industry. Those benefit from BlackRock’s commitment to building a first-class risk management system via its Aladdin analytics software. The software is also available for sale to other firms and has proved to be a popular option for competitors, a testament to its usefulness. 
More recently, the firm has shifted its focus to ESG offerings and incorporating ESG across its investment lineup, leading to a political backlash in the United States.
BlackRock isn’t the best at everything it tries to do, but retail investors, financial advisors, and large institutions could all build robust portfolios using BlackRock’s products.

Parent

iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF

FM is passively managed to track a tier-weighted index of stocks mainly from frontier markets and, to a lesser degree, emerging countries.

FM is an actively managed fund that invests in stocks of companies from frontier markets and, to a lesser degree, emerging countries.

iShares Frontier and Select EM ETF is an actively managed ETF that provides exposure to frontier and select emerging market equities. FM has a high management fee of 0.80% and is highly concentrated in terms of geographic exposure with over 30% of assets invested in Vietnam. FM appears cheap when considering the trailing PE ratio of 9.1x but that does not tell the full story as FM is mostly invested in low valuation sectors.

FM: Why I Am Not A Buyer

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--F/m Investments LLC (“F/m”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Diffractive Managers Group, LLC, today announced it filed a novel exemptive application with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), seeking an order that would permit each of the ETFs in the US Benchmark Series – a suite of 10 ETFs designed to simplify access to the US Treasury market – to offer a mutual fund share class. The exemptive relief requested by the application is the first of its kind.

F/m Investments Files Exemptive Application Seeking Major Asset Management Industry First – Mutual Fund Share Class Relief for an Existing ETF Family

Frontier Markets declined by 26%, underperforming the MSCI AWI by over 10 percentage points, but the 2023 share price is seen as a solid entry point. The iShares MSCI Frontier Markets ETF offers broad exposure to frontier markets and smaller emerging markets like Egypt, with a slight discount to the MSCI Frontier Markets index. Despite concerns over recent sovereign debt defaults, the ETF is seen as attractive due to its diversified portfolio, acceptable management fee, and exposure to undervalued markets like Romania and Colombia.

iShares Frontier And Select EM ETF: Slight Improvement In Frontier Market Sentiment

Significant economic improvements in Sri Lanka since November 2022, including reduced inflation and increased foreign exchange revenues. Revenues from international tourism and worker remittances are expected to reach approximately $2 billion and $5 billion, respectively, in 2023, aiding Sri Lanka's management of its current account deficit.

AFC On The Road: Sri Lanka Is Bouncing Back

Avantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF

Xtrackers MSCI Emerging Markets Hedged Equity ETF

Franklin Emerging Market Core

Direxion Daily Emerging Markets Bull 3X Shares

Direxion Daily Emerging Markets Bear 3X Shares

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF

ProShares Ultra MSCI Emerging Markets

ProShares UltraShort MSCI Emerging Markets

Templeton Emerging Markets Fund

Global X Next Emerging & Frontier ETF

WisdomTree India Earnings Fund

iShares MSCI EM ESG Optimized ETF

ProShares Short MSCI Emerging Markets

First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund

Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Emerging Markets ETF

iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF

iShares MSCI India ETF

Direxion Daily MSCI India Bull 2X Shares

iShares India 50 ETF

JPMorgan Emerging Markets Equity Core ETF

iShares ESG MSCI EM Leaders ETF

PIMCO RAFI Dynamic Multi-Factor Emerging Markets Equity ETF

Emerging Markets Funds are made up of funds that seek long-term capital appreciation. Nigeria and Emerging Markets Europe have been the two areas that have seen the highest year-to-date and May returns. With the U.S. looking to pause rate hikes, we may see inflows coming back to domestic funds.

Emerging Markets Funds See Top 10 Weekly Outflow On Record

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--F/m Investments LLC (“F/m”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Diffractive Managers Group, is proud to announce it has been shortlisted for two With Intelligence Mutual Fund and ETF Awards for its work on The US Benchmark Series, a family of US Treasury ETFs designed to simplify access to the US Treasury market. The US Benchmark Series ETFs have raised a more than $1.3 billion in less than nine months since their initial launch. “This is a tremendous honor for everyone on ou.

F/m Investments Shortlisted for Two Awards at ‘With Intelligence Mutual Fund and ETF Awards 2023'

Schwab Emerging Markets Equity ETF

SPDR Portfolio Emerging Markets ETF

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF

WisdomTree Emerging Markets ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund

The liquidity crisis impacting selected developed market banks has unnerved emerging market investors. Markets have recovered from the turmoil following the liquidity crisis impacting some banks in the United States and Europe.

Emerging Markets Insights: Emerging Market Banks Are Resilient

Prior to March 2021, iShares MSCI Frontier and Select EM ETF (NYSEARCA:FM) was called iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF, and it simply tracked an index of the top 100 Frontier stocks, or stock collectives. Since that time, the FM fund has repositioned itself to be a more diverse exchange-traded fund ("ETF"). Now FM has broadened its exposure to stocks in frontier and emerging markets.

FM: Wagons East As The Frontier Beckons

FM invests in frontier and emerging markets equities. The fund is likely undervalued based on forward earnings power, after having fallen by significantly more than the S&P 500 over the past year or so.

FM: Ripe For A Bounce Into The Next Business Cycle

First Quantum Minerals Ltd (OTCPK:FQVLF) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call October 26, 2022 9:00 AM ET Company Participants Bonita To - Director, IR Anthony Pascall - CEO & Director Rudi Badenhorst - COO Ryan MacWilliam - CFO John Gregory - Group Consultant, Mining Conference Call Participants Orest Wowkodaw - Scotiabank Emily Chieng - Goldman Sachs Group Greg Barnes - TD Securities Bryce Adams - CIBC Capital Markets Lawson Winder - Bank of America Merrill Lynch Gordon Lawson - Paradigm Capital Dalton Baretto - Canaccord Genuity Sandeep Peety - Morgan Stanley Edward Brucker - Barclays Bank Ralph Profiti - Eight Capital Operator Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd (FQVLF) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

The iShares MSCI Frontier and Select EM ETF is one vehicle to consider if you prefer an ETF that invests directly in listed equities in smaller markets. I am waiting for lower levels before initiating positions in frontier markets.

FM: Outlook For Frontier Market Equities

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (OTCPK:FQVLF) Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call July 27, 2022 9:00 AM ET Company Participants Bonita To - Director, Investor Relations Tristan Pascall - Chief Executive Officer Hannes Meyer - Chief Financial Officer John Gregory - Group Consultant of Mining Conference Call Participants Greg Barnes - TD Securities Emily Chieng - Goldman Sachs Orest Wowkodaw - Scotiabank Jackie Przybylowski - BMO Capital Markets Abhi Agarwal - Deutsche Bank Ioannis Masvoulas - Morgan Stanley Karl Blunden - Goldman Sachs Ed Brucker - Barclays Jatinder Goel - Exane BNP Paribas Dalton Baretto - Canaccord Operator Thank you for standing by.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FQVLF) CEO Tristan Pascall on Q2 2022 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

FM is a passively managed investment vehicle offering exposure to a vast equity basket of a few EM and frontier markets, with Vietnam, Nigeria, and Romania in the top three. Last year, FM underwent a thorough strategy overhaul, with the underlying index replaced with the MSCI Frontier and Emerging Markets Select Index on March 1.

FM: Frontier Markets Offer Value With Inherent Risks

Royal Gold

iShares Silver Trust

Investing in commodities is one way to fight inflation.

Better Buy Now: Gold, Silver, or Copper?

As the name implies, the ETF can invest in select Frontier and Emerging Markets. Even before MSCI tossed Russia from the EM Index this month, it was not eligible here.

FM ETF: Combines Frontier And Select EM Countries Into One Fund

FM invests in frontier and emerging markets. The fund is probably modestly overvalued, although within the realm of fair value.

FM: Frontier And Emerging Market Stocks Are Modestly Overvalued

Frontier markets (FM) have strong population growth trends that favor solid long-term "strategic" equity returns.

Frontier Markets: Strategically Strong, Tactically Triumphant

iShares MSCI Kuwait ETF

Late last year, MSCI upgraded Kuwait from a "Frontier" to an "Emerging Market" status, and iShares launched the iShares MSCI Kuwait ETF. Around seven years ago, we saw a similar upgrade and iShares launch on two neighboring markets: Qatar and the UAE, with both benchmarks delivering negative total returns since.

FM, KWT: Kuwait Upgrade From 'Frontier' To 'Emerging' Unlikely Bullish For Either Fund

A young population has helped Asian frontier countries manage the pandemic. In 2021, Asian frontier markets will see a robust recovery in GDP and earnings growth.

AFC Asia Frontier Fund - 2020 Review And Outlook For 2021

Global X MSCI Nigeria ETF

Nearby support and resistance levels on charts of frontier markets such as Vietnam and Nigeria suggest the potential for a move higher.

Frontier Markets Look Prepared to Push Higher

iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF

iShares MSCI China ETF

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF

Vanguard Total International Stock ETF

SPDR S&P Biotech ETF

ProShares MSCI EAFE Dividend Growers ETF

Index funds offer investors the opportunity for diversified growth. With the S&P 500 and Dow Jones up so much in 2020, here are 7 others.

7 Index Funds To Buy For Diversified Growth in 2021

This year's US election makes political risk in frontier markets seem comparatively less severe. With frontier markets trading at less than half the valuation of developed markets, at least investors are being compensated for the risks.

U.S. Elections Makes Frontier Markets Seem Less Crazy

iShares Emerging Markets Dividend ETF

iShares MSCI Indonesia ETF

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF

iShares MSCI India Small Cap ETF

COVID-19 has ignited a movement to diversify global supply chains away from China. Countries within Emerging Asia stand to reap most of the benefits via enhanced direct investment.

News for iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF ETF (FM)