Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

Seeking out Small-Cap Dividend Payers

This week’s featured fund, the O’Shares FTSE Russell Small Cap Quality Dividend ETF (OUSM), tracks the FTSE USA Small Cap ex Real Estate 2Qual/Vol/Yield 3% Capped Factor Index.

OUSM reweights the index to reflect the performance of publicly listed small-capitalization, dividend-paying issuers in the United States based on three factors: high quality, low volatility and high dividend yield. The quality and low volatility factors are designed to reduce exposure to equities that pay high dividends but experience large price declines, as may occur with some dividend investing strategies.

Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Shares ETF Investments, is predicting that the U.S. small cap space presents a tremendous opportunity.

Small caps are significant companies, with most topping $1 billion in market value. As a group, small caps have provided attractive performance, despite O’Leary publicly stating he prefers lower risk levels.

“Most people don’t realize that $1,000 invested in U.S small caps 15 years ago would potentially been worth $3,385 today, compared to only $2,642 for U.S. large caps and now, with a strong U.S. dollar and the potential for reduced regulation to boost the U.S. economy, I have more reasons to own small caps,” O’Leary said in an interview.

There are several other advantages to investing in OUSM. Even though it has just $141.58 million in assets under management, OUSM is quite diversified at 223 holdings. Secondly, due to the nature of small-cap equities, investors may not be familiar or aware of many of OUSM’s holdings and would have to spend the time and energy on research if they wished to invest in them individually. OUSM cuts out all that hassle and conveniently offers exposure to high-quality small-caps in one place.

The fund charges an expense ratio of 0.48%, which is the standard for O’Shares funds. It has a distribution yield of 2.53%.

Year to date, OUSM has moved slowly along with the broader market, returning just 1.48%. OUSM’s one-year return is 9.39%.

Top holdings in the fund are Steris Plc (STE), 3.40%; Bio-Techne Corp. (TECH), 2.31%; Encompass Health Corp. (EHC), 2.31%; Lazard Ltd. (LAZ), 2.26%; and Watsco Inc. (WSO), 1.99%.

OUSM’s sector exposure breakdown is as follows: Industrials, 23.83%; Financials, 17.51%; Consumer Discretionary, 16.66%. Information technology, 13.54%; Health Care, 9.41%; and Utilities, 7.61%.

For investors who are looking for small-cap quality dividend companies with low volatility, consider doing more research on O’Shares FTSE Russell Small Cap Quality Dividend ETF (OUSM).

I am happy to answer any of your questions about ETFs, so do not hesitate to send me an email. You just may see your question answered in a future ETF Talk.

Jim Woods

Jim Woods is a 20-plus-year veteran of the markets with varied experience as a broker, hedge fund trader, financial writer, author and newsletter editor. Jim is the editor of Intelligence Report, Investing Edge, the Bullseye Stock Trader, and The Deep Woods (formerly the Weekly ETF Report). His books include co-authoring, “Billion Dollar Green: Profit from the Eco Revolution,” and “The Wealth Shield: How to Invest and Protect Your Money from Another Stock Market Crash, Financial Crisis or Global Economic Collapse.” He’s also ghostwritten many books and articles, as well as edited content for some of the investment industry’s biggest luminaries. His articles have appeared on many leading financial websites, including StockInvestor.com, InvestorPlace.com, Main Street Investor, MarketWatch, Street Authority, Human Events and many others. Jim formerly worked with Investor’s Business Daily founder William J. O’Neil, helping to author training courses in the CANSLIM stock-picking methodology. The independent firm TipRanks rates Jim the No. 3 financial blogger in the world (out of more than 6,000). TipRanks calculates that, since 2012, he's made 361 successful recommendations out of 499 total, earning a success rate of 72% and a +15.3% average return per recommendation. He is known in professional and personal circles as “The Renaissance Man,” because his expertise includes such varied fields as composing and performing music; Western horsemanship, combat marksmanship, martial arts, auto racing and bodybuilding. Jim holds a BA in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a former U.S. Army paratrooper. A self-described “radical for capitalism,” he celebrates the virtue of making money from his Southern California horse ranch.