Should Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows ETF (CALF) Be on Your Investing Radar?

Looking for broad exposure to the Small Cap Value segment of the US equity market? You should consider the Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows ETF (CALF), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/16/2017.

The fund is sponsored by Pacer Etfs. It has amassed assets over $4.30 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the Small Cap Value segment of the US equity market.

Why Small Cap Value

There's a lot of potential to investing in small cap companies, but with market capitalization below $2 billion, that high potential comes with even higher risk.

While value stocks have lower than average price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, they also have lower than average sales and earnings growth rates. When you look at long-term performance, value stocks have outperformed growth stocks in nearly all markets. But in strong bull markets, growth stocks are more likely to be winners.

Costs

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.59%, making it one of the more expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.25%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Consumer Discretionary sector--about 21.30% of the portfolio. Industrials and Information Technology round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Ovintiv Inc (OVV) accounts for about 2.09% of total assets, followed by Expedia Group Inc (EXPE) and Cf Industries Holdings Inc (CF).

The top 10 holdings account for about 19.58% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

CALF seeks to match the performance of the Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows Index before fees and expenses. The Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows Index uses an objective, rules-based methodology to provide exposure to small-capitalization U.S. companies with high free cash flow yields.

The ETF has lost about -16.75% so far this year and is down about -20.51% in the last one year (as of 05/07/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $32 and $48.76.

The ETF has a beta of 1.09 and standard deviation of 24.60% for the trailing three-year period. With about 202 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, CALF is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Style Box - Small Cap Value area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

The Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF (AVUV) and the Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR) track a similar index. While Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF has $14.52 billion in assets, Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF has $27.69 billion. AVUV has an expense ratio of 0.25% and VBR charges 0.07%.

Bottom-Line

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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