WisdomTree Yield Enh US S-T Aggt Bd ETF’s management team is rated Average, but a solid investment process still helps this strategy retain its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Silver. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's sensible investment philosophy merits an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an underweight position in securitized debt and AA rated bonds compared with category peers. The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm a Below 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

Morningstar's evaluation of this fund's process seeks to understand management's investment philosophy, and whether it has been applied consistently over time and can add value across the market cycle. WisdomTree Yield Enh US S-T Aggt Bd Fd earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.    The leading factor in the rating is its parent firm's impressive long-term risk-adjusted performance, as shown by the firm's average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.4 stars. This fund tracks an index, which also increases its process rating. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, shows that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Lastly, the process is limited by the turnover of management across its parent firm. The firm's asset-weighted manager tenure of three years suggests it could do more to retain portfolio managers.

 Compared with other funds in the Short-Term Bond Morningstar Category, this fund, historically, hews closely to peers' credit and interest-rate sensitivity over the past few years. Opening the analysis to additional factors, the portfolio has displayed biases over time, whether towards or away from certain fixed-income instruments. Relative to the average strategy in the category, the managers have been underweight securitized debt in recent years. In the latest month, the strategy has also relatively underweighted securitized debt compared with Morningstar Category peers. Additionally, there's been a bias away from AA rated bonds over the past few years. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to AA rated bonds than peers. Finally, during the past few years, the fund leaned meaningfully towards debt with three- to five-year maturities. In this month, the strategy also leaned more towards debt with three- to five-year maturities compared with its peers.

 This strategy has a modest 3.4% 12-month yield, lower than its average peers' 3.7%. Plus, its 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity) sits at 4.7%. Typically, a lower yield comes with the benefit of less credit risk. But that isn't always the case. Over the past 12 months, the average yield of the fund has been lower than the average yield of its Morningstar Category peers. The portfolio's average surveyed credit quality is on par with peers, with both the fund and the average being rated A.

Above Average

Process

WisdomTree’s team is good but unexceptional, earning the strategy an Average People Pillar rating. There’s a deep bench of five managers listed on the fund. Experience on the team is abundant, with 16 years of average portfolio management experience. Though they do not manage other products together, managers may manage them individually.  

 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.

Average

People

WisdomTree is improving, but its shaky global fund lineup and uncertain trajectory hold its rating to Below Average. 

WisdomTree’s research organization has long been a strength. Under CIO Jeremy Schwartz, the team has generated creative, economically sound ideas and evolved them into investable products, like the efficient core series. A recent focus on investor education spawned the Portfolio Analysis Tools Hub, an online platform that taps the team’s brainpower to help investors make better investment decisions.

The firm’s product lineup is a mixed bag. To complement its core lineup of fundamentally weighted strategies, WisdomTree has recently launched funds targeting established factors instead of trendy themes—an encouraging reorientation. Yet the shutdown of WisdomTree U.S. Growth and Momentum ETF calls WisdomTree’s commitment to these funds into question, and vestiges from its laxer product-development era look ripe for closure. Its European lineup features risky trading tools that are hard for investors to use well. 

WisdomTree’s future may hinge on WisdomTree Prime, its blockchain-based digital wallet. The launch reflects founder and CEO Jonathan Steinberg’s conviction in the disruptive potential of the blockchain. Prime shouldn’t hurt WisdomTree fund investors (most funds on the platform are zero-fee), but it may distract the firm from shoring up its core offering.

Below Average

Parent

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By Kevin Flanagan, Head of Fixed Income Strategy Last week, I wrote about the money and bond markets apparently doubling down on their optimistic expectations for Fed rate cuts this year. However, an interesting development occurred over the last week: Fed pushback.

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By Kevin Flanagan, Head of Fixed Income Strategy Anyone looking for a fresh perspective from Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell last week was sorely disappointed. During his semiannual monetary policy testimony to Congress, Powell essentially reiterated his stance that, yes, the economy is in a solid recovery, but no, the recent spike in inflation is only “transitory.

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Watch enough media and congressional appearances by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and you couldn't be blamed for thinking each of those events sounds identical. At least Powell is consistent.

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News for WisdomTree Barclays Yield Enhanced U.S. Short-Term Aggregate Bond Fund ETF (SHAG)