The WisdomTree U.S. SmallCap Quality Dividend Growth ETF (DGRS) made its debut on 07/25/2013, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Style Box - Small Cap Blend category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.
A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.
However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.
Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.
This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
Managed by Wisdomtree, DGRS has amassed assets over $212.51 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Small Cap Blend. DGRS, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the WisdomTree U.S. SmallCap Quality Dividend Growth Index.
The WisdomTree U.S. SmallCap Quality Dividend Growth Index is a fundamentally weighted index that consists of the small-capitalization segment of dividend-paying stocks with growth characteristics.
Cost & Other Expenses
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.38% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.87%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector - about 24.20% of the portfolio. Financials and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Epr Properties (EPR) accounts for about 2.36% of total assets, followed by Spire Inc (SR) and One Gas Inc (OGS).