US Value Index Medalist Funds

Index funds generally don’t try to beat the market by opportunistically buying or selling securities. Rather, they simply invest the fund or ETF's assets to mirror the construction of an index (such as the S&P 500), providing investors a way to gain exposure to a specific part of the markets. Index funds generally have lower relative costs compared with actively managed offerings. Here we highlight those funds also tilted towards US value-oriented stocks that also received a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Morningstar Medalist Rating by our analysts. Value is defined based on low valuations (low price ratios and high dividend yields) and slow growth (low growth rates for earnings, sales, book value, and cash flow). The Medalist Rating is a forward-looking assessment of an investment strategy. The rating is on a five-tier scale running from Gold to Negative. For passive strategies, funds and ETFs with top ratings are expected to deliver alpha that exceeds the lesser of the category median net alpha, or zero, over the long term.