The iShares Emerging Markets Equity Factor ETF (EMGF) was launched on 12/08/2015, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.
Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.
However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.
Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.
This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Blackrock, and has been able to amass over $939.89 million, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets Diversified Multiple-Factor Index.
The STOXX Emerging Markets Equity Factor Index (USD) composes of stocks of large and mid-capitalization companies in emerging markets that have favourable exposure to target style factors subject to constraints.
Cost & Other Expenses
When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.26% for EMGF, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 3.35%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.
Taking into account individual holdings, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturingaccounts for about 9.65% of the fund's total assets, followed by Tencent Holdings Ltd and Samsung Electronics Ltd.
EMGF's top 10 holdings account for about 25.08% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added about 19.39% so far this year and was up about 16.63% in the last one year (as of 08/21/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $41.37 and $54.25
The ETF has a beta of 0.57 and standard deviation of 16.20% for the trailing three-year period. With about 597 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
iShares Emerging Markets Equity Factor ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Broad Emerging Market ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has $95.96 billion in assets, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $101.31 billion. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.07% and IEMG changes 0.09%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Broad Emerging Market ETFs
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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iShares Emerging Markets Equity Factor ETF (EMGF): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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