A sound investment process and strong management team underpin PIMCO Broad US TIPS ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Bronze. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's effective investment philosophy supports an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant underweight position in AA rated bonds and an overweight in government bonds compared with category peers. The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. 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

PIMCO Broad US TIPS ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. 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. The main driver of 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 3.3 stars. This fund tracks an index, which also increases its process rating. Historical data, like 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 parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 48%. 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.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is: 

The investment seeks to provide total return that closely corresponds, before fees and expenses, and to the total return of the ICE BofA U.S. Inflation-Linked Treasury Index.  The fund invests at least 80% of its total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) in the component securities of the ICE BofA U.S. Inflation-Linked Treasury Index (the "underlying index"). The underlying index is an unmanaged index comprised of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities ("TIPS").  

 This strategy's 12-month yield is 4.7%, which mirrors its average peer. Plus, it has a 0.4% 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity). The portfolio has a higher average surveyed credit quality of AAA, compared with the category average of A, and it holds no non-investment-grade assets, despite the average peers' 1%. Strategies that take on less credit risk can often shoulder more-adverse market conditions. In terms of long-term interest-rate risk, this strategy is on par with peers. The longer a strategy's duration, the more sensitive it is to shifts in interest rates. This fund, with a 7.1-year duration, is expected to gain 7.1% of its net asset value if interest rates drop by 1 percentage point, and vice versa.

Above Average

Process

PIMCO Broad US TIPS ETF benefits considerably from its fixed income team, earning it an Above Average People Pillar rating. There are three managers listed on the fund: Daniel He, Matthew Dorsten, Tanuj Dora. Experience on the team is abundant, with 10 years of average portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of three strategies, with solid long-term prospects. The strategies average a Bronze asset-weighted Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating a position 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

Some concerns notwithstanding, Pimco's massive resources--both capital and human--and its laser ‎focus on excellence merit an Above Average Parent rating.‎
True, Pimco could be better on pricing. Shareholders, particularly in Europe, haven't enjoyed the ‎economies of scale that they could given Pimco's massive asset base. The firm, however, believes its ‎pricing is fair based on what it consistently delivers for investors, and it's hard to argue that's not the ‎case.‎
Pimco has generally enjoyed great success with its intense working culture, even if departures are a ‎byproduct of that intensity and can sometimes dim the near-term outlook on strategies. Yet, more ‎often than not, Pimco draws on its legion of skilled people and positions the next generation to ‎thrive.
CIO Dan Ivascyn and CEO Manny Roman ‎represent that next generation and have built on the organizational strengths they inherited. An experienced and critical-thinking investor, ‎Ivascyn has sought to curate an elite staff and capable investment culture since he assumed his ‎current role in 2014 and since Roman joined him in 2016. They have significantly grown the firm's pool ‎of investment professionals and supported them by spending massively on technology and ‎technologists to spur persistent outperformance while keeping risk in check. There may be a few others in Pimco's league, but very few.‎

Parent

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