Despite People Pillar weakness and an Average Process Pillar, Global X Defense Tech ETF gets enough right to 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 earns an Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an underweight position in liquidity exposure and momentum exposure compared with category peers. Low liquidity risk exposure is attributed to stocks with a low trading volume, limiting managers' flexibility. And low momentum exposure is rooted in holding stocks that are not currently on a winning streak and instead holding those that managers believe are undervalued. The team managing this passive strategy earns a Low People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Average Parent Pillar rating, and this rating is inherited from vehicles belonging to the same branding entity and is indirectly assigned by an analyst.

Analyst Rating

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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. Global X Defense Tech ETF earns an Average Process Pillar rating. The predominant contributor to 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. The size of the portfolio management team also bolsters the rating. With four portfolio managers, the fund is reasonably well-resourced. Lastly, the process is limited by the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 28%. 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 subpar 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 to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Global X Defense Tech Index.  The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes (if any), in the securities of the Global X Defense Tech Index, which may include common stocks, American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs") and Global Depositary Receipts ("GDRs") based on the securities in the underlying index. The underlying index is owned and was developed by Global X Management Company LLC, and an affiliate of the fund and the fund's investment adviser. The fund is non-diversified. 

 The portfolio is overweight in industrials by 82.9 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its basic materials allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and communication services, underweight the average by 64.7 and 9.4 percentage points of assets, respectively. The strategy owns 35 securities and is relatively concentrated. Specifically, 61.6% of the fund’s assets are housed within the top 10 holdings, compared with the typical peer's 52.3%. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 3% of the fund's holdings have turned over, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Average

Process

Global X’s team earns a Low People Pillar rating. The most substantial detractor from the rating is the parent firm's five-year success ratio of 30%. 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 67% also detracts from the team. The experience of the management team, which averages four years at this fund, limits the team as well.

People

Mirae Asset Global Investments is a Korean asset manager and a key player in the Asian financial market. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mirae Asset Financial Group, founded by Hyeon Joo Park. Park’s leadership and entrepreneurial spirit have been the driving force behind the global rise of Mirae, and he holds a majority stake in the business. 
Mirae Asset has grown significantly over the years (USD 198 billion as of December 2022) across a diversified platform, of which about 60% of assets are managed in South Korea. We believe that Mirae’s core mutual fund business in the Asia-Pac region is relatively strong. It has a collaborative structure, a strong and large investment team, low manager turnover, competitive fees, and a disciplined approach to product-development pointing toward better stewardship practices relative to peers in these markets. However, this is in stark contrast to its exchange-traded fund business, which accounts for 41% of the total assets. 
The firm’s ETF lineup focuses largely on high-risk thematic strategies that seem gimmicky, emphasizing short-term asset-gathering. The firm appears to leverage trending topics such as robotics and artificial intelligence, virtual reality and gaming, and cloud computing. There’s a notable concern regarding the potential liquidation of these funds since they seem to be designed around investment fads. Furthermore, these products are often expensive, especially compared with broadly diversified index funds and ETFs. Unsurprisingly, Mirae's reflexive product-development strategy has led to an increase in fund closures.
Our experience engaging with the MAGI team to gather critical information for the parent assessment has not been as positive. It hasn’t been as transparent in its disclosures, and unlike its peers, its responsiveness has been inadequate. We prefer firms with a more transparent corporate culture. Overall, these actions hold us back, and the firm retains its Parent Pillar rating of Average.

Parent

Global X Defense Tech ETF

SHLD tracks a narrow index of US-listed companies selected and weighted based on current and projected US national security revenues and significant intellectual property contributions to the aerospace and defense industry.

SHLD tracks a modified market-cap weighted index of the top 50 pure-play defense technology companies from around the world. These companies are considered best positioned to benefit from increased governmental defense spending.

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Global X Adds to Thematic Suite With New Defense Tech ETF

NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Global X ETFs, the New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), today announced the launch of the Global X Defense Tech ETF. SHLD is the latest addition to the company's Thematic Growth suite of funds, offering investors access to the latest developments in cutting-edge technologies which contribute to national defense.

News for Global X Defense Tech ETF ETF (SHLD)