Is Vident US equity strategy ETF (VUSE) a strong ETF right now?

Making its debut on 01/22/2014, smart beta exchange traded fund Vident U.S. Equity Strategy ETF (VUSE) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - All Cap Value category of the market.

What are smart beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.

On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as 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.

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 and index

The fund is managed by Vident Financial. VUSE has been able to amass assets over $650.29 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Value. VUSE seeks to match the performance of the Vident Core U.S. Equity Fund Index before fees and expenses.

The Vident U.S. Quality Index is a rules-based, systematic strategy index comprised of equity securities principally traded in the U.S. market of issuers domiciled in the United States.

Cost and other expenses

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.50%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.78%.

Sector exposure and top holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 29.6% of the portfolio. Financials and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Broadcom Inc (AVGO) accounts for about 2.92% of total assets, followed by Walmart Inc (WMT) and Oracle Corp (ORCL).

VUSE's top 10 holdings account for about 23.06% of its total assets under management.

Performance and risk

The ETF has gained about 13.73% and was up about 17.04% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 09/30/2025), respectively. VUSE has traded between $50.72 and $67.22 during this last 52-week period.

VUSE has a beta of 0.99 and standard deviation of 15.83% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 124 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

Vident U.S. Equity Strategy ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - All Cap Value segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Fidelity High Dividend ETF (FDVV) tracks Fidelity Core Dividend Index and the iShares Core S&P U.S. Value ETF (IUSV) tracks S&P 900 Value Index. Fidelity High Dividend ETF has $7.03 billion in assets, iShares Core S&P U.S. Value ETF has $22.48 billion. FDVV has an expense ratio of 0.16% and IUSV changes 0.04%.

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 - All Cap Value

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