ALPS O'Shares Europe Quality Div ETF earns a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral with strength in areas such as Process offset by weaker spots such as People. The portfolio maintains a sizable 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's investment approach stands out and earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.  Low liquidity risk exposure is attributed to stocks with a low trading volume, limiting managers' flexibility. And a high quality exposure is rooted in holding stocks that are consistently profitable, growing, and have solid balance sheets. Although this strategy's parent firm still has a way to go to be a high-quality steward, it has bright spots like portfolio managers who invest a sizeable amount in their strategy but could focus on a relatively inexperienced portfolio management team. As a result, the firm obtains a Low Parent Pillar.

Analyst Rating

ASML Hld

Moelis

SAP SE

National Energy Services Reunited

Suncor Energy

Novan

Autoliv

Rogers

DTE Energy

Banco Santander

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. ALPS O'Shares Europe Quality Div ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. 

The leading factor in 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. Excellent risk-adjusted performance also bolsters the rating. 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 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 relatively low success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup.

 This strategy tends to hold larger, more growth-oriented companies compared with its average peer in the Europe Stock Morningstar Category. Analyzing additional factors, this strategy continually held some stocks with low trading volume over the last few years. Less-liquid stocks might offer strong returns to compensate for their risks, but they can be harder and more expensive to trade in bear markets. In the latest month, the strategy was also less exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with Morningstar Category peers. This strategy also has tilted in favor of high-quality stocks, those that have demonstrated low financial leverage and solid return on equity, during these years. This means the fund holds consistently profitable, growing companies with solid balance sheets that may help it weather downturns better than Morningstar Category peers. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Quality factor in the most recent month. Additionally, this strategy has exhibited a tilt toward low-volatility stocks in these years, meaning companies with a lower historical standard deviation of returns over its peers. These companies have historically been a valuable ballast to steady portfolio returns during market downturns. In recent months, the strategy also had less Volatility 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 industrials and healthcare relative to the category average by 9.8 and 4.6 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are basic materials and financial services, underweight the average by 6.4 and 6.1 percentage points of assets, respectively. The strategy owns 53 securities and is relatively top-heavy. Of the strategy's assets, 39.9% are concentrated within the top 10 holdings, compared to the category’s 21.8% average. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, looking at year-over-year movements, 40% of the fund's holdings have changed, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Above Average

Process

ALPS’s team earns a Below Average People Pillar rating. The team benefits from the combined average three-year excess return of each manager, which suggests that the funds they manage have beat an average manager. However, the rating is weakened by the parent firm's five-year success ratio of 42%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median return for the period. The parent's modest success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup. The parent firm's five-year retention rate of 62% also limits the team.

Below Average

People

ALPS has a ways to go to become an industry-standard steward, resulting in a Low Parent Pillar rating. Despite the negative rating, an area of strength of the firm is manager investment.  Over 34% of the firm's assets are covered by invested managers, in an effort to align portfolio manager and shareholder interests. With an average asset-weighted tenure of eight years among the longest-tenured managers at ALPS, the firm is on par with peers. Seasoned teams tend to have more experience to draw upon should they need to weather turbulent market conditions. The firm charges fees on its open-end and exchange-traded funds that are on par with category peers. On average, fund fees on its products fall in the middle quintile, giving it neither an advantage nor disadvantage compared with the competition.

Parent

ALPS O'Shares Europe Quality Dividend ETF Shares

OEUR tracks an index that selects and weights large and mid-cap Europe stocks based on three factors: high quality, low volatility, and high dividend yield.

JPMorgan BetaBuilders Europe ETF

Xtrackers MSCI Europe Hedged Equity ETF

Xtrackers MSCI Eurozone Hedged Equity ETF

WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund

WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund

ProShares MSCI Europe Dividend Growers ETF

ProShares UltraShort Euro

Direxion Daily FTSE Europe Bull 3X Shares

WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund

iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF

First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund

First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund

First Trust Eurozone AlphaDEX ETF

SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF

Franklin FTSE Europe ETF

Franklin FTSE Eurozone ETF

First Trust IPOX Europe Equity Opportunities ETF

Invesco CurrencyShares Euro Trust

Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Europe Equity ETF

WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Eurozone ETF

iShares Core MSCI Europe ETF

iShares MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF

iShares Europe ETF

Pacer Trendpilot European Index ETF

First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Europe ETF

SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF

ProShares Ultra Euro

Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF

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

Broadly speaking, European equities have long frustrated investors the world over, particularly when measured against the U.S. The laggard status of European stocks relative to U.S. counterparts, in large part, is attributable to European benchmarks lacking significant technology and growth exposure.

Consider Dividends for European Equity Exposure

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

ALPS Disruptive Technologies ETF

ALPS International Sector Dividend Dogs ETF

O'Shares Global Internet Giants ETF

The four ETFs in SS&C ALPS Advisors' lineup that have seen the highest returns in 2023 focused on technology and international stocks. 1. ALPS O'Shares Global Internet Giants ETF (OGIG) OGIG is ALPS' best-performing ETF in 2023.

The 4 ALPS ETFs With the Highest Returns in 2023

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

After hitting a new all-time high in February, the FTSE has struggled to find any sustainable support, hurt by concerns over China, the UK's struggling economy, and high interest rates across the world. We have had some positive data out of China, the UK, and the US this week, which may mean the worst days are behind us.

FTSE Lags EU And U.S. Markets, But Time For Catch Up With Global Indices?

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.

News for ALPS O'Shares Europe Quality Dividend ETF Shares ETF (OEUR)