VictoryShares US Mult-Fctr Mnmm Vltl 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 investment process inspires confidence and earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in quality exposure and an underweight in volatility exposure compared with category peers. A high quality exposure means holding stocks that are consistently profitable, growing, and have solid balance sheets. And low volatility exposure is rooted in stocks that have a lower standard deviation of returns. The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an 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

Microsoft

Apple

Johnson & Johnson

Walmart

Merck

AbbVie

Lockheed Martin

Republic Services

Waste Management

Kimberly-Clark

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. VictoryShares US Mult-Fctr Mnmm Vltl ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. 

The primary contributor to the rating is the fund's excellent long-term risk-adjusted performance. This can be seen in its five-year alpha calculated relative to the category average, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. 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 parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 46%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat 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.

 This strategy tends to hold smaller, more growth-oriented companies than its average peer in the Large Value Morningstar Category. Examining additional factor exposure, this strategy has consistently favored high-quality stocks, including those with low financial leverage and solid returns on equity, compared with Morningstar Category peers during recent years. High exposure to the quality factor means holding companies that are consistently profitable, growing, and have solid balance sheets. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Quality factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy has also tilted toward low-volatility stocks in recent years, meaning those that have a lower standard deviation of returns. These companies have historically been a valuable ballast to steady portfolio returns during market downturns. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to the Volatility factor than peers. In addition, this strategy has exhibited a tilt toward liquid assets, evidenced by consistently holding companies with relatively higher trading volumes. More-liquid assets contribute to more-flexible exit strategies without price changes and tend to be a ballast during market selloffs. For example, if the portfolio faces successive redemptions in a short period of time, it will be less likely to experience a significant loss. In recent months, however, the strategy had less Liquidity factor exposure over 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 technology and industrials relative to the category average by 15.3 and 4.7 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are financial services and utilities, underweight the average by 13.7 and 4.8 percentage points of assets, respectively. The strategy owns 76 securities and is relatively top-heavy. Of the strategy's assets, 47.3% are concentrated within the top 10 holdings, as opposed to the typical peer's 27.4%. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, looking at year-over-year movements, 73% of the fund's holdings have turned over, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Above Average

Process

Victory Capital’s  team is comparable to peers, resulting in an Average People Pillar rating. The fund takes a solo manager approach, with Mannik Dhillon as the only listed manager at the helm, who brings 10 years of portfolio management experience to the table. They manage a total of 17 strategies, with an asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral. This means, in aggregate, they fall short and will struggle to produce positive alpha relative to the category median. With only one manager listed on the strategy, the passive strategy is vulnerable to key-person risk. 

 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

As Victory Capital Management expands a roster of investment teams that runs the gamut,  it retains an Average Parent rating.

Victory operates a multiaffiliate model. It centralizes operations, compliance, and distribution while giving its 12 franchises investment autonomy. The franchise lineup had long been composed of those primarily focused on small/mid-cap equities. But the 2019 acquisition of fixed-income shop USAA Investments (which was rebranded as Victory Income Investors in April 2023) represented a significant change to that model. The firm has continued to broaden from there, acquiring three new franchises since the start of 2021: THB Asset Management (an environmental, social, and governance specialist), New Energy Capital (an alternatives manager), and WestEnd Advisors (a third-party model strategist). Overall, Victory is as big and diverse as ever: Its assets under management as of March 2023 was $157.6 billion, much higher than the $52.8 billion level as of December 2018.

Victory’s bright spots include Sycamore Capital and Trivalent Investments, which boast strong investment cultures, good levels of manager ownership, and solid capacity management processes. But there are questions elsewhere. Victory Capital Solutions has made some questionable subadvisor changes and dubious exchange-traded fund launches in recent years; Victory Income Investors has seen several departures since the 2019 acquisition and will absorb another franchise, Incore, in September 2023.

Parent

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