JPMorgan US Quality Factor ETF JQUA

The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the lowest fee quintile among peers.

The strategy's investment process inspires confidence and earns a High Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight in liquidity exposure and yield exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And a high yield exposure is rooted in holding high dividend-paying or buyback stocks. The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Above 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.

JPMorgan US Quality Factor ETF earns a High Process Pillar rating.

The main driver of the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Impressive risk-adjusted performance also supports the process. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. The parent firm's excellent risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.3 stars, contributes to the process as well.

This strategy leans toward smaller, more growth-oriented companies compared with its average peer in the Large Blend Morningstar Category. Looking at additional factor exposure, this strategy has consistently tilted toward companies with relatively higher trading volumes in the last few years. More-liquid assets are easier to buy and sell without adversely moving their prices and tend to provide some ballast during market selloffs. They also are easier to sell to meet redemptions if a host of investors decide to leave the fund in a short period of time. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy's portfolio also has had exposure to more stocks with high dividend or buyback yields over peers in these years. High-yield stocks tend to be connected to more mature companies earning enough cash to return some to shareholders. At times, however, extreme market pressure can force them to cut their dividends, which hurts stock performance. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Yield factor in the most recent month. In addition, this strategy has exhibited a tilt toward higher-volatility stocks in these years, meaning companies that have a higher historical standard deviation of returns compared with peers. This is a higher-risk, higher-reward approach. In this month, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor 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 has allocations in its top two sectors, technology and consumer cyclical, that are similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are communication services and industrials; however, the allocations are similar to the category. The portfolio is positioned across 260 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than the typical peer in the category. In the most recent disclosure, 20.0% of the fund’s assets were concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the category’s 51.0% average. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, this fund trades less frequently than the category’s average, potentially limiting costs to investors.

There are four managers listed on the fund: Yegang(Steven) Wu, Yazann Romahi, Natalia Zvereva, Joe Staines. Together, they manage a total of six strategies, with a Gold asset-weighted algorithmically-assigned average Morningstar Medalist Rating, demonstrating their potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate. The team has undergone a bout of turnover recently, with Aijaz Hussain leaving about a month ago. Even though it is a passive fund, high turnover can still hinder the effectiveness of the investment process.

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.

As of 2022, this investment stalwart manages more than USD 2.5 trillion in AUM. Composed of various global cohorts and diverse asset classes, the firm has more tightly integrated its capabilities in recent years, notably through the development of proprietary analytical and risk systems. Investment teams are robustly staffed and helmed by seasoned contributors. The firm’s strategies tend to produce reliable portfolios, and several flagship offerings are Morningstar Medalists. Manager incentives align with fundholders'; compensation reflects longer-term performance factors, and portfolio managers invest in the firm’s strategies as part of their compensation plans.

The firm’s funds tend to be well-priced, but they aren’t as competitive as many highly regarded peers of similar scale. Recent product launches include thematic and single-country strategies, both of which carry the potential for volatile performance and flows, along with misuse by investors. The firm remains intrepid when it comes to developing an environmental, social, and governance-focused framework and continues to move into other areas such as direct indexing through its 55iP acquisition and China through its joint venture, but these complicated initiatives take time to assess any real and lasting effect.

Over the past three years, it beat the category index, the Russell 1000 Index, by an annualized 2.9 percentage points, and outperformed its average peer by 3.7 percentage points. And more importantly, when looking across a longer horizon, the strategy outpaced the index. On a five-year basis, it led the index by an annualized 45 basis points.

The risk-adjusted performance only continues to make a case for this fund. The share class had a higher Sharpe ratio, a measure of risk-adjusted return, than the index over the trailing five-year period. This strategy also delivered a smooth ride for investors, with a relatively low standard deviation of 17.4%, compared with the benchmark’s 18.9%. Finally, the share class proved itself effective by generating positive alpha, over the same period, against the category group index: a benchmark that encapsulates the performance of the broader asset class.

This share class is in the cheapest quintile of its Morningstar Category. Its attractive expense ratio, considered jointly with the fund’s People, Process, and Parent Pillars, suggests that this share class has the ability to deliver positive alpha versus its category benchmark, explaining its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold.