Dimensional - US Core Equity Market ETF
$52.84−0.32 (−0.59%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.12%
- Fund size
- $12.9B
- 1Y return
- +16.8%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 0.89%
- Holdings
- 2381
- Volume · 30D
- 0.6M sh
- NAV per share
- $53.16
- 52W range
The ETF.net DFAU Grade
Score 86 of 100 sits in the A band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.AScore 98Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 84Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 65Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 85Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 84Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 92Category rank
Our read on DFAU
AActive management priced like an index fund. Dimensional spreads across roughly 2,400 US stocks, then tilts the weights toward value, profitability and momentum instead of simply mirroring the Russell 3000.
Seeks long-term capital appreciation. It uses an integrated research, portfolio-design, management, and trading process to build a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. companies while balancing long-term return drivers, risk, shorter-term considerations, and trading costs.
Why people hold it
- Charges 0.12% a year, well under the 0.65% median for active US equity funds and the cheapest of the top-graded names in its group (AVLC, DFAC, FELC).
- Holds roughly 2,400 US companies, so no single name steers the fund. Whole-market coverage, not a concentrated bet.
- Active without the stock-picking drama: it leans weights toward value, profitability and momentum, using the Russell 3000 as its reference point rather than a rigid rulebook.
- A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its active US equity peer group.
Worth knowing
- Those tilts cut both ways: results can drift from a plain Russell 3000 fund for long stretches, in either direction.
- No published index behind it. The trade-off for flexibility is that you're buying Dimensional's process, not a public set of rules you can check line by line.
- Distributions land quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than income.
DFAU Holdings
- Stocks
- 2,381
- 34%
- NVDA
Sectors
- Technology35.4%
- Financials13.2%
- Consumer Discr.9.9%
- Industrials9.6%
- Health Care9.5%
- Communication8.7%
- Energy4.6%
- Cons. Staples4.5%
- Materials2.4%
- Utilities2.1%
- Real Estate0.2%
Geography
- United States97.41%
- Ireland1.16%
- United Kingdom0.51%
- Switzerland0.31%
- Bermuda0.25%
- Netherlands0.11%
- Sweden0.09%
- Cayman Islands0.06%
- 0.09%
DFAU Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | DFAU |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +14.1% |
| 1 month | +0.2% |
| 3 months | +3.2% |
| 1 year | +16.8% |
| 3 years | +22.1% |
| 5 years | +13.0% |
| 10 years | — |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | DFAU |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +14.1% | |
| 2025 | +16.8% | |
| 2024 | +23.2% | |
| 2023 | +24.8% | |
| 2022 | −17.0% | |
| 2021 | +26.9% | |
| 2020 | +6.0% |
DFAU in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on DFAU yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
DFAU Dividends
- 0.89%
- $0.47
- $0.12 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 23, 2026 | Jun 25, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Mar 24, 2026 | Mar 26, 2026 | $0.11 |
| Dec 16, 2025 | Dec 18, 2025 | $0.12 |
| Sep 23, 2025 | Sep 25, 2025 | $0.12 |
| Jun 24, 2025 | Jun 26, 2025 | $0.12 |
| Mar 25, 2025 | Mar 27, 2025 | $0.09 |
| Dec 17, 2024 | Dec 19, 2024 | $0.16 |
| Sep 17, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 | $0.11 |
| Jun 18, 2024 | Jun 20, 2024 | $0.10 |
| Mar 19, 2024 | Mar 22, 2024 | $0.08 |
| Dec 19, 2023 | Dec 22, 2023 | $0.13 |
| Sep 19, 2023 | Sep 22, 2023 | $0.10 |
DFAU Risk
- 13.1%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 1.13
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −23.6%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 1.00
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
DFAU Cost
- The middle half of US Active Equity funds
- Median 0.70%
2 of the 124 US Active Equity funds charge less.