Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Value category of the market, the WisdomTree U.S. MidCap ETF (EZM) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 02/23/2007.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.
Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well for investors who believe in market efficiency.
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.
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 Wisdomtree, and has been able to amass over $756.82 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Mid Cap Value. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the WisdomTree U.S. MidCap Earnings Index before fees and expenses.
The WisdomTree U.S. MidCap Index is a fundamentally weighted index that measures the performance of earnings-generating companies within the mid-capitalization segment of the U.S. Stock Market.
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.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.38%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.27%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Representing 18.8% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Financials sector; Consumer Discretionary and Industrials round out the top three.
Taking into account individual holdings, Fox Corp - Class A (FOXA) accounts for about 0.99% of the fund's total assets, followed by Albertsons Cos Inc - Class A (ACI) and Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc (WBA).
The top 10 holdings account for about 7.71% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has lost about -3.01% and is up roughly 6.13% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 06/19/2025), respectively. EZM has traded between $51.81 and $68.19 during this last 52-week period.
The fund has a beta of 1.07 and standard deviation of 20.95% for the trailing three-year period, which makes EZM a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 553 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
WisdomTree U.S. MidCap ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Mid Cap Value segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF (IWS) tracks Russell MidCap Value Index and the Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF (VOE) tracks CRSP U.S. Mid Cap Value Index. iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF has $12.99 billion in assets, Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF has $17.57 billion. IWS has an expense ratio of 0.23% and VOE changes 0.07%.
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 - Mid Cap Value
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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WisdomTree U.S. MidCap ETF (EZM): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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