News

Launched on 05/11/2016, the JPMorgan Diversified Return U.S. Mid Cap Equity ETF (JPME) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend 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.

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.

On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta.

This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix of such characteristics.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by J.P. Morgan, and has been able to amass over $381.26 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the Russell Midcap Diversified Factor Index.

The JP Morgan Diversified Factor US Mid Cap Equity Index utilizes a rules-based approach that combines risk-based portfolio construction with multi-factor security selection, including value, quality and momentum factors.

Cost & Other Expenses

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.

With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.24%.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.74%.

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.

Representing 13.10% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Industrials sector; Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare round out the top three.

When you look at individual holdings, Gartner Inc Common Stock (IT) accounts for about 0.50% of the fund's total assets, followed by Cardinal Health Inc (CAH) and Vistra Corp Common Stock (VST).

The top 10 holdings account for about 4.7% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 6.53% and is up about 17.25% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 04/09/2024), respectively. JPME has traded between $79.30 and $99.14 during this last 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 1.04 and standard deviation of 16.83% for the trailing three-year period. With about 364 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

JPMorgan Diversified Return U.S. Mid Cap Equity ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO) tracks CRSP US Mid Cap Index and the iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF (IJH) tracks S&P MidCap 400 Index. Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF has $63.83 billion in assets, iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF has $83.82 billion. VO has an expense ratio of 0.04% and IJH charges 0.05%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend.

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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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.