A strong management team and sound investment process underpin Schwab Fundamental US Broad Market ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Silver. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's effective investment approach earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight liquidity exposure and has a substantial overweight in volatility exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And high volatility exposure is rooted in stocks that have a higher standard deviation of returns. 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

Apple

Microsoft

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. - Ordinary Shares - Class B

Exxon Mobil

JPMorgan Chase & Co

Amazon

Wells Fargo

Verizon

Alphabet

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. Schwab Fundamental US Broad Market ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. 

The main 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. Excellent risk-adjusted performance also contributes to the process. 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. Lastly, the process is limited by the parent firm's five-year retention rate of 75%, which suggests it could do more to retain its portfolio managers.

 This strategy targets smaller plays than its peers’ average in the Large Value Morningstar Category. But in terms of style (value/growth) exposure, it does not have much of a bias and resembles the category's typical portfolio. Examining additional factor exposure, this strategy has consistently tilted toward companies with relatively higher trading volumes in the last 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. This strategy has also exhibited a tilt toward high-volatility stocks over these years, meaning it has invested in companies that have a higher historical standard deviation of returns. This orientation tends to pay off most prominently when markets are hot. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor in the most recent month. Furthermore, this strategy has leaned toward low-yield stocks over recent years, holding fewer companies with high dividend or buyback yields. Its preference for stocks with lower yields may well lead to a growthier portfolio. However, growth stocks court additional risks if their forecasts do not come to fruition and are often more volatile than companies with stable dividends. In recent months, the strategy also had less Yield 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 technology and consumer cyclical relative to the category average by 4.8 and 3.7 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are healthcare and energy, with healthcare underweighting the average portfolio by 3.5 percentage points of assets and energy similar to the average. The portfolio is positioned across 1,684 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than peers in the category. In particular, 19.2% of the fund’s assets are concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the category average's 27.4%.

Above Average

Process

Schwab Fundamental US Broad Market ETF's strong team drives the strategy's Above Average People Pillar rating. There are four managers listed on the fund: Christopher Bliss, Agnes Zau, Ferian Juwono, Jeremy Brown. Together, they manage a total of 22 strategies, with a Gold 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.

People

Under new but familiar leadership, Schwab Asset Management Solutions maintains its Above Average Parent Pillar rating. 

After the former Schwab CEO was named president of parent Charles Schwab Corporation in 2022, Omar Aguilar, a Schwab CIO since 2011, was promoted to CEO while retaining his CIO role. Under Aguilar's leadership, Schwab remains focused on core-oriented strategies: More than 95% of the firm's fund assets under management are in low-cost index products that are suitable for the biggest portions of investors' portfolios. Index-tracking remains are par with the best teams in the business.

Recent strategic initiatives show a desire to grow in an increasingly competitive landscape. Forays into direct indexing—which customizes separate accounts through tax-loss harvesting, values-based requests, or other client preferences—as well as some new launches, such as Schwab Municipal Bond ETF, fit the firm's strategic focus and are natural extensions of its capabilities. However, other recent launches in more-niche asset classes, including Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF, contrast previous refusals to enter trendy markets. 

Schwab benefits from its association with its parent's brokerage business. This arrangement and efficient operation allow funds to grow quickly and keep fees in line with larger competitors. Historically, Schwab has been quick to match competitor fee cuts and now sports a 0.09% asset-weighted average fee across its mutual funds and ETFs.

Parent

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