The combination of a middling Process Pillar rating and a Below Average People Pillar rating limit  ProShares S&P Global Cor Btty Mtls ETF to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.  The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the second-cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The team managing the passive strategy earns a Below Average People Pillar. The strategy earns an Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a substantial overweight position in liquidity exposure and has an overweight in quality exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And a high quality exposure is rooted in holding stocks with low financial leverage and strong returns on equity. The strategy's parent organization doesn't stand out, earning the firm an Average Parent Pillar rating. It has displayed a handful of investor-friendly attributes including overall low fees but is held back by a low success ratio across its lineup.

Analyst Rating

MFS Intermediate Income Trust

Albemarle

Livent Corp

Columbia India Consumer ETF

Era Group

iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF

American Airlines

BHP Billiton

Franco-Nevada C

Anthem

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. ProShares S&P Global Cor Btty Mtls ETF earns an Average Process Pillar rating. The largest 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. A low expense ratio also influences the rating, with fees ranking in its category's second-cheapest fifth. A higher expense ratio reduces net returns, so being affordable gives this fund a substantial advantage. Lastly, the process is limited by the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 43%. 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 parent's modest 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 investment results, before fees and expenses, that track the performance of the S&P Global Core Battery Metals Index.  The index consists of companies that had (i) positive total revenue and (ii) positive production value from, in aggregate, the mining of lithium, nickel and cobalt during the previous year. Production value is the dollar market value of the lithium, nickel or cobalt produced. Under normal circumstances, the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, and in the securities that comprise the index. It is non-diversified. 

 The portfolio is overweight in basic materials by 44.3 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its financial services allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are energy and real estate, underweight the average by 23.4 and 4.4 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is composed of 55 holdings and is relatively top-heavy. Of the strategy's assets, 39.3% are concentrated within the top 10 holdings, compared to the category’s 24.8% average. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, this fund trades less regularly than the typical peer in its category, which may result in a lower cost to investors.

Average

Process

ProShares’s team receives a Below Average People Pillar rating. The team benefits from the strategy's costs, which rank in its category's second least expensive quintile. A higher expense ratio reduces net returns, so low costs give this team an advantage. However, the rating is weakened by the parent firm's five-year success ratio of 32%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median return for the period. The parent's relatively low success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup. The parent firm's five-year retention rate of 58% also limits the team.

Below Average

People

In a competitive industry, ProShares doesn't differentiate itself enough, leading to an Average Parent Pillar rating. One notable advantage of ProShares is its below-average fees. On average, the firm's open-end and exchange-traded fund fees fall in the cheapest quintile of category peers. ProShares fails to showcase longevity across its product shelf, as evidenced by its five-year success ratio. Over this time period, only 32% of its roster has been able to both survive and beat its respective category median. A low success ratio indicates poor performance and raises questions about a firm’s discipline around investment strategy and product development. Despite other redeeming qualities as a firm, ProShares has seen some disruption among its portfolio management ranks in the past five years, denoted by elevated turnover compared to peer asset-management firms. Long-term stability tends to support positive results.

Parent

Proshares S&P Global Core Battery Metals ETF

ION tracks an index of companies from around the world that are engaged in the mining of base metals used to produce batteries.

Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF

Lithium Americas

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF

Sprott Lithium Miners ETF

Piedmont Lithium

Sigma Lithium Corp

Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile

Wesfarmers Ltd

Lithium chemical spot prices and spodumene prices were significantly lower the past month. Lithium market news - BMI: "Battery capacity to increase 4-fold by 2030 to 4TWh." Argentina to reach top three spot among lithium players by 2027. Lithium company news - Albemarle raises offer to A$3.00 in takeover offer for Liontown Resources, receives $90m critical materials award from the DoD.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of September 2023

Lithium chemical spot prices and spodumene prices were significantly lower the past month. Lithium market news - BloombergNEF: EV battery sizes increasing may lead to battery supply chain shortages. BMI: 401 gigafactories planned to be in operation by 2030. Lithium company news - Albemarle invests C$109m Strategic Investment and MOU into Patriot Battery Metals. Pilbara Minerals announces 109Mt Mineral Resource increase to 414Mt.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of August 2023

FREYR Battery SA

Tesla

Lithium chemical spot prices and spodumene prices were lower the past month. Lithium market news - DoE: Lithium & nickel are the two 'high importance to energy' critical materials in the mid term (2025-2035). China lithium futures market begins trading. Lithium company news - Albemarle amends JV deal with Mineral Resources, to pay $380M-$400M, Albemarle will take 100% ownership of Kemerton LiOH facility.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of July 2023

Lithium chemical spot prices and spodumene prices were very slightly higher in the past month. Fastmarkets - Lithium prices to remain elevated this year. Lithium market news - BNEF forecasts a 22x scale-up in annual lithium demand in 2022 and 2050 in the Net Zero Scenario. EU, Argentina sign raw materials MOU, lithium focus. Lithium company news - Ganfeng/LAC - First lithium produced as part of commissioning at Caucharí-Olaroz. Ganfeng/Leo Lithium - Goulamina total Resource increased by 48.2% to 211 Mt grading 1.37%.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of June 2023

BYD Co Ltd

Element EV Solar and Battery Materials Lithium Nickel Copper Cobalt Futures ETF

Energizer Holdings

First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Index Fund

Largo Resources LTD

NextEra Energy

Siemens AG

Vistra Energy

Volkswagen AG

WisdomTree Battery Value Chain and Innovation Fund

Electrovaya Inc

Stationary energy storage is booming, led by Tesla. Global stationary energy storage is forecast to double in 2023. Tesla Master Plan 3 says the world will need ~120 TWh of stationary energy storage for a 100% renewable energy world. That's about a 1,200x increase on today's level. How to invest into the stationary energy storage boom.

Stationary Energy Storage Is Set For Insane Growth - How To Invest Into This Boom

Lithium chemical spot prices surged higher and spodumene spot prices were flat the past month. Lithium market news - Samsung SDI & GM $3B EV battery plant in USA. Hyundai and SK On EV battery cell production JV in USA. Tesla lithium refinery groundbreaking.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of May 2023

Lithium chemical spot prices were lower and spodumene spot prices were lower the past month. Lithium carbonate spot prices in China may be bottoming as low margins hit producers. Lithium market news - DOE expects U.S. battery production in 2030 will be 20x what it was in 2021. UK taskforce on critical minerals. Chile's President wants to nationalize lithium.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of April 2023

Lithium chemical spot prices were significantly lower and spodumene spot prices were lower the past month. "Surge in Chinese lithium prices has turned into rapid retreat". Lithium market news - Beijing probes illegal mining activities in Chinese lithium hub. EU Commission proposes 10% of their critical raw materials supply to be mined in Europe by 2030.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of March 2023

Digital Media Solutions

General Motors

Lithium chemical prices were significantly lower and spodumene prices were roughly flat over the past month. Lithium market news - GM invests US$650m into Lithium Americas in return for Thacker Pass lithium off-take deal. Bloomberg: Tesla is considering a bid for battery metals miner (Sigma Lithium).

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of February 2023

Lithium chemical and spodumene prices were lower the past month. Lithium market news - Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is forecasting a small lithium deficit in 2023. Fastmarkets expects a small supply surplus to develop in 2023.

Lithium Miners News For The Month Of January 2023

Glencore PLC

Anglo American PLC

Nickel spot prices were significantly higher the last month and the LME inventory was higher. Nickel market news - BMI: You can build the cathode/battery/EV plants; but if you don't have the raw materials, they're just expensive weights on your balance sheet.

Nickel Miners News For The Month Of December 2022

Grayscale's David La Valle, 3D/L Capital Management's Ben Lavine, and Invesco's Rene Reyna appeared on a panel called Thematic ETFs – Sky is the Limit moderated by Bloomberg's Breanne Dougherty. Thematics have garnered a huge amount of attention and an increasing market share.

Thematic ETFs – Sky is the Limit

ProShares launched the ProShares S&P Global Core Battery Metals ETF (NYSE Arca: ION), an ETF that invests only in companies mining battery metals. These companies supply the raw metals needed to power the batteries used in the growing number of electric vehicles, laptops, smartphones, and energy storage devices.

ProShares Launches ION ETF to Target Companies Mining Battery Metals

ProShares is launching an exchange-traded fund that will solely invest in companies that mine for metals needed for batteries used in products such as electric vehicles and consumer electronics, according to Simeon Hyman, the firm's global investment strategist.

ProShares launches ETF investing in miners of metals for batteries powering electric vehicles

BETHESDA, Md.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--ProShares, a premier provider of ETFs, today launched ProShares S&P Global Core Battery Metals ETF (ION), the first ETF to invest only in companies mining battery metals. These companies supply the raw metals needed to power the batteries used in the growing number of electric vehicles, laptops, smartphones and energy storage devices.

News for Proshares S&P Global Core Battery Metals ETF ETF (ION)