Yahoo Finance Is FlexShares International Quality Dividend ETF (IQDF) a Strong ETF Right Now?
The FlexShares International Quality Dividend ETF (IQDF) made its debut on 04/12/2013, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the World ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.
Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Flexshares. IQDF has been able to amass assets over $555.41 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the World ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Index before fees and expenses.
The Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Index is designed to provide exposure to a high-quality income-oriented portfolio of long-only international securities issued by non-U.S.-based companies, with an emphasis on long-term capital growth and a targeted overall beta that is similar to that of the Northern Trust International Large Cap Index.
Cost & Other Expenses
For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.47% for IQDF, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 5.70%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
When you look at individual holdings, Novo Nordisk A/s Common Stock Dkk 0.1 (NOVOb.CO) accounts for about 3.23% of the fund's total assets, followed by Bhp Group Ltd Common Stock Aud 0 (BHP) and Royal Bank Of Canada Common Stock Cad 0 (RY).
IQDF's top 10 holdings account for about 20.18% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has gained about 2.86% and is up about 11.43% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/01/2024), respectively. IQDF has traded between $20.56 and $24.37 during this last 52-week period.
The fund has a beta of 0.86 and standard deviation of 15.25% for the trailing three-year period, which makes IQDF a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 241 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
FlexShares International Quality Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the World ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
FlexShares International Quality Dividend Defensive ETF (IQDE) tracks Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Defensive Index and the FlexShares International Quality Dividend Dynamic ETF (IQDY) tracks Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Dynamic Index. FlexShares International Quality Dividend Defensive ETF has $23.51 million in assets, FlexShares International Quality Dividend Dynamic ETF has $73.68 million. IQDE has an expense ratio of 0.47% and IQDY charges 0.47%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the World ETFs.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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FlexShares International Quality Dividend ETF (IQDF): ETF Research Reports
BHP Group Limited Sponsored ADR (BHP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Royal Bank Of Canada (RY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
FlexShares International Quality Dividend Dynamic ETF (IQDY): ETF Research Reports
FlexShares International Quality Dividend Defensive ETF (IQDE): ETF Research Reports
