Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend category of the market, the Franklin U.S. Large Cap Multifactor Index ETF (FLQL) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 04/26/2017.
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.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
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.
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 Franklin Templeton Investments. FLQL has been able to amass assets over $1.8 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Blend. FLQL seeks to match the performance of the LibertyQ US Large Cap Equity Index before fees and expenses.
The LibertyQ US Large Cap Equity Index seeks to achieve a lower level of risk and higher risk-adjusted performance than the Russell 1000 Index over the long term by applying a multi-factor selection process, which is designed to select equity securities from the Russell 1000 Index that have favorable exposure to four investment style factors quality, value, momentum and low volatility.
Cost & Other Expenses
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.15% for FLQL, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.
FLQL's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 1.08%.
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.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 34% of the portfolio. Consumer Discretionary and Telecom round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Apple Inc (AAPL) accounts for about 6.68% of total assets, followed by Nvidia Corp (NVDA) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT).
Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 36.79% of FLQL's total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has gained about 2.09% and is up about 15.45% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 02/16/2026), respectively. FLQL has traded between $50.10 and $72.13 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.96 and standard deviation of 14.84% for the trailing three-year period. With about 218 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
Franklin U.S. Large Cap Multifactor Index ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Blend segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) tracks S&P 500 Index and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) tracks S&P 500 Index. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $749.28 billion in assets, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has $847.69 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VOO changes 0.03%.
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 - Large 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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Franklin U.S. Large Cap Multifactor Index ETF (FLQL): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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