Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Value category of the market, the Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Value ETF (NUMV) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 12/13/2016.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader 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.
By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.
Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.
Fund Sponsor & Index
Managed by Nuveen, NUMV has amassed assets over $365.87 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Mid Cap Value. NUMV seeks to match the performance of the TIAA ESG USA Mid-Cap Value Index before fees and expenses.
The Nuveen ESG USA Mid-Cap Value Index primarily composes of equity securities issued by mid-capitalization companies listed on U.S. exchanges.
Cost & Other Expenses
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 cousins, other things remaining the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.31%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
NUMV's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 1.78%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
For NUMV, it has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector --about 17.6% of the portfolio --while Financials and Real Estate round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH) accounts for about 2.31% of total assets, followed by Hartford Insurance Group (HIG) and Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED).
NUMV's top 10 holdings account for about 20.57% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added about 1.21% and it's up approximately 8.43% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 06/23/2025), respectively. NUMV has traded between $30.28 and $38.29 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.99 and standard deviation of 17.68% for the trailing three-year period. With about 100 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Value 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.
Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF (ESGV) tracks FTSE US ALL CAP CHOICE INDEX and the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU) tracks MSCI USA ESG Focus Index. Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF has $10.18 billion in assets, iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF has $13.33 billion. ESGV has an expense ratio of 0.09% and ESGU changes 0.15%.
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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Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Value ETF (NUMV): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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