Displaying items by tag: quality

Natixis conducted a survey of 500 investment professionals, managing a combined $35 trillion in assets. The survey showed that investors are adjusting their allocations in expectations of more volatility in 2024 due to more challenging macroeconomic conditions. 

A major change in the survey is increasing preference towards active strategies as 58% noted that active outperformed passive for them in 2023, and 63% believe active will outperform this year. Overall, 75% of professionals believe that being active will help in identifying alpha in the new year. 

In terms of fixed income, 62% see outperformance in long-duration bonds, although only 25% have actually increased exposure due to uncertainty about the Fed. In addition to increasing duration, many are interested in increasing quality with 44% looking to increase exposure to investment-grade corporate debt and US Treasuries. 

Money continues to flow to alternatives with 66% believing that there will be significant delta between private and public market returns. Within the asset class, fund selectors are most bullish on private equity and private debt at 55%. 

With regards to model portfolios, 85% of firms now offer them either in-house or through third-party firms. Due to increasing demand, the number of offerings are expected to increase. Benefits include additional diligence and increased odds of client retention during periods of uncertainty. They also help form deeper relationships with more trust between advisors and clients, leading to more of a relationship focused on comprehensive, financial planning. 

Finsum: Natixis conducted a survey of 500 investment professionals and found that model portfolios are increasingly popular. Another major theme is that volatility is expected to remain elevated in 2024 due to uncertainty about the economy and Fed policy. 

Value stocks are usually sought after for their relatively cheap prices trading at low P/E ratios or below book values. They had been on a near decade-long losing streak that culminated in the Pandemic crisis, which drove investors to the lofty tech-based growth stocks, but things turned around for value in September 2020 but were once again stalled out by the delta variant. However, as the economy begins to once again stabilize value is coming back with a vengeance. Bankruptcy concerns and thin profit margins are no longer fears, and value is at the ultimate discount. Research Affiliates, and investment strategy firm, value is poised to return between 5-10% in the coming decade. Global vaccine rates are making progress and cyclical sectors and hence then value sectors are going to turn around the way they started to in September 2020.

FINSUM: Value’s comeback seems inevitable, the ultra-low prices are out of wack stability will see value outperforming other factors in the upcoming year.

The market has almost everyone worried. Indices have been back and forth for months, but valuations keep grinding inexorably higher even as anxieties about the Fed and the economy proliferate. So how can advisors find the best returns for their clients in a way that potentially offers upside but also protects against a correction? The answer may be to add quality.

Take a look at the O’Shares US Quality Dividend ETF (OUSA). The fund is a quality-focused ETF that selects highly profitable, high quality companies with stable dividends. Investors intuitively understand that profitability is tied to returns, but many don’t understand the extent. Looking at five year returns in the S&P 500 using return on assets as a measure, one can see that top quartile companies have averaged a 20% return per year, more than double that of companies in the 4th quartile* . In other words, high quality companies provide a great deal more upside than their peers, and in a down market, these uber-profitable companies have also shown to exhibit better downside mitigation. Since inception (7/14/2015), OUSA has only captured 85% downside vs. 109% for the Russell 1000 Value Index using the S&P 500 as the reference benchmark, as of 6/30/2021.

Get ahead of the flight to quality in a down market. Get OUSA.

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than original cost. For performance current to the most recent month-end, please visit https://oshares.com/ousa-us/#performance. Returns beyond 1 year are annualized. The total expense ratio is 0.48%. Click here for the fund's standardized returns.

Shares of the Funds are not individually redeemable and the owners of Shares may purchase or redeem Shares from each Fund in Creation Units only. The purchase and sale price of individual Shares trading on an Exchange may be below, at or above the most recently calculated NAV for such Shares.

Market Price returns are generally based on market value at 4:00PM Eastern time (when NAV is normally determined), and do not represent the returns you would receive if you traded shares at other times. Fund returns assume that dividends and capital gains distributions have been reinvested in the Fund at NAV.

*Definitions:

Russell 1000 Value Index: Measures the performance of those Russell 1000 companies with lower price-to-book ratios and lower forecasted growth values.

S&P 500: The S&P 500® is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities and serves as the foundation for a wide range of investment products. The index includes 500 leading companies and captures approximately 80% coverage of available market capitalization.

1st Quartile: Contains the top 25% of companies in the S&P 500 based on average 5-year return on assets. 2nd Quartile: Contains the top 25%-50% of companies in the S&P 500 based on average 5-year return on assets. 3rd Quartile: Contains the top 50%-75% of companies in the S&P 500 based on average 5-year return on assets. 4th Quartile: Contains the bottom 25% of companies in the S&P 500 based on average 5-year return on assets. ROA (Return on Assets): Indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets, in percentage. Calculated as (Trailing 12M Net Income / Average Total Assets) x 100. Higher ROA: Defined as companies with ROA that is above the average for the sector. Lower ROA: Defined as companies with ROA that is below the average for the sector.

- This is sponsored content by O’Shares ETFs -

Before you invest in O’Shares ETF Investments Funds, please refer to the prospectus for important information about the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. To obtain a prospectus containing this and other important information, please visit www.oshares.com to view or download a prospectus online. Read the prospectus carefully before you invest.

There are risks involved with investing including the possible loss of principal. Concentration in a particular industry or sector will subject the Funds to loss due to adverse occurrences that may affect that industry or sector. The Funds may use derivatives which may involve risks different from, or greater than, those associated with more traditional investments. A Fund's emphasis on dividend-paying stocks involves the risk that such stocks may fall out of favor with investors and underperform the market. Also, a company may reduce or eliminate its dividend after the Fund's purchase of such a company's securities. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Shares are bought and sold at market price (not NAV), are not individually redeemable, and owners of Shares may acquire those Shares from the Funds and tender those shares for redemption to the Funds in Creation Unit aggregations only, consisting of 50,000 Shares. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns. The market price of Shares can be at, below, or above NAV. Market Price returns are based upon the midpoint of the bid/ask spread at 4:00 PM Eastern time (when NAV is normally determined), and do not represent the returns you would receive if you traded Shares at other times. O’Shares ETF Investments Funds are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Foreside Fund Services, LLC is not affiliated with O’Shares ETF Investments or any of its affiliates.

(New York)

Expensive stocks are the norm these days as P/E ratios are near all-time highs…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site.

(New York)

Any investor in ETFs will have noticed the marked rise of “factors” over the last few years. These are technical or conceptual overlays that managers use to create a theme for a fund. They are generally predicated on some type of data, like “quality” or “momentum”, both of which are well-studied. However, lately there has been an explosion of new factors which are being employed in funds. The problem is that many of these are not being observed on a long enough timeline to see if they are relevant. In practice, this means that a lot of funds are predicated around strategies that do not have any proof of concept.

FINSUM: So we have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, some factors seem clearly frivolous, while others which may also be quite new, seem to be a good angle on the current market environment. The key is to be very discerning in choosing these types of funds.