Dimensional - Emerging Markets Core Equity 2 ETF
$40.08−0.73 (−1.80%)
History starts Apr 27, 2022.
- Expense ratio
- 0.39%
- Fund size
- $9.8B
- 1Y return
- +28.2%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 1.82%
- Holdings
- 6563
- Volume · 30D
- 0.9M sh
- NAV per share
- $40.47
- 52W range
The ETF.net DFEM Grade
Score 76 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 80Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.Not scoredRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 58Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 76Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 90Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 91Category rank
Our read on DFEM
ADimensional casts one giant net over roughly 6,600 emerging-market stocks, then tilts the weights toward cheaper, more profitable, higher-momentum names. Index-like breadth, active hands, at a fee well under the typical active EM fund.
The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.
Why people hold it
- 0.39% a year, against a 0.65% median for its active emerging-markets peer group. Cheap for a fund making its own calls.
- Roughly 6,600 holdings. No single stock, sector or country gets to dominate the outcome; breadth is the main risk control.
- Systematically active: it targets value, profitability and momentum across the opportunity set rather than copying the MSCI Emerging Markets IMI Index name for name.
- A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the stronger implementations in the active EM group.
Worth knowing
- Active means no index to hide behind. Returns come from Dimensional's tilts, which can drift away from a standard EM benchmark in either direction.
- Not the cheapest seat in the room: AVEM, JEMA and AVXC run 0.33%, a touch under DFEM's 0.39%.
- Income arrives quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than yield.
DFEM Holdings
- Stocks
- 6,563
- 24%
- 2330.TW
Sectors
- Technology36.3%
- Financials15.9%
- Industrials10.7%
- Consumer Discr.8.5%
- Materials8.2%
- Communication5.1%
- Health Care4.1%
- Energy4.0%
- Cons. Staples3.6%
- Utilities1.9%
- Real Estate1.7%
Geography
- Taiwan28.37%
- South Korea18.24%
- China17.30%
- India12.59%
- Brazil3.87%
- South Africa2.82%
- Saudi Arabia2.43%
- Hong Kong2.36%
- 12.01%
Developed 3% · Emerging 97%
DFEM Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
DFEM$12,822
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 | DFEM |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +24.3% |
| 1 month | +2.2% |
| 3 months | −3.0% |
| 1 year | +28.2% |
| 3 years | +22.7% |
| 5 years | — |
| 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 | DFEM |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +24.3% | |
| 2025 | +29.5% | |
| 2024 | +7.5% | |
| 2023 | +13.9% | |
| 2022 | −8.7% |
DFEM in the news
DFEM Dividends
- 1.82%
- $0.74
- $0.23 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 23, 2026 | Jun 25, 2026 | $0.23 |
| Mar 24, 2026 | Mar 26, 2026 | $0.05 |
| Dec 16, 2025 | Dec 18, 2025 | $0.20 |
| Sep 23, 2025 | Sep 25, 2025 | $0.26 |
| Jun 24, 2025 | Jun 26, 2025 | $0.25 |
| Mar 25, 2025 | Mar 27, 2025 | $0.06 |
| Dec 17, 2024 | Dec 19, 2024 | $0.18 |
| Sep 17, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 | $0.26 |
| Jun 18, 2024 | Jun 20, 2024 | $0.19 |
| Mar 19, 2024 | Mar 22, 2024 | $0.03 |
| Dec 19, 2023 | Dec 22, 2023 | $0.12 |
| Sep 19, 2023 | Sep 22, 2023 | $0.29 |
DFEM Risk
- 14.8%
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.
- 1.09
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.
- −20.8%
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.
- 1.06
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
DFEM Cost
0.39%
DFEM0.39%
- The middle half of Emerging Markets Active Equity funds
- Median 0.65%
5 of the 27 Emerging Markets Active Equity funds charge less.