VanEck Morningstar SMID Moat ETF
$38.34−0.31 (−0.80%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.49%
- Fund size
- $312M
- 1Y return
- +7.9%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 1.29%
- Holdings
- 115
- Volume · 30D
- 0M sh
- NAV per share
- $38.48
- 52W range
The ETF.net SMOT Grade
Score 44 of 100 sits in the C 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.DScore 26Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.BScore 67Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.DScore 26Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 57Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.BScore 63Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.DScore 39Category rank
Our read on SMOT
CMorningstar's moat research, aimed down the cap ladder. SMOT tracks an index of small- and mid-cap companies flagged for durable competitive advantages, and buys them only when they screen as attractively valued.
The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Morningstar US Small-Mid Cap Moat Focus Index, an index of small- and mid-cap companies selected for sustainable competitive advantages and attractive valuations.
Why people hold it
- Two screens, not one: companies must show a sustainable competitive advantage AND look attractively valued. Quality and value in a single published rulebook rather than a manager's hunch.vaneck.com
- Takes the moat idea into small- and mid-cap territory, where wide-moat businesses are scarcer and less picked over than in the mega-cap crowd.vaneck.com
- Roughly 120 US stocks: concentrated enough for the moat screen to actually show up in returns, broad enough that no single name dominates the portfolio.
- Fully rules-based against a named, public benchmark (Morningstar US Small-Mid Cap Moat Focus Index), so you can read the methodology instead of guessing at it.
Worth knowing
- The research costs money: 0.49% a year, well above plain factor workhorses like FNDX at 0.25% or VONV at 0.06%. You're paying for the moat screen.
- Thinly traded compared with the giants of the US factor aisle, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads. Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly.
- Launched in 2022, so the live record is short, and in a crowded field of 100-plus US factor funds it lands in the lower half of our overall read.
SMOT Holdings
- Stocks
- 115
- 16%
- IQV
Sectors
- Health Care25.0%
- Industrials12.3%
- Consumer Discr.12.1%
- Materials11.4%
- Technology10.8%
- Cons. Staples10.8%
- Financials9.4%
- Communication3.2%
- Real Estate2.3%
- Energy2.1%
- Utilities0.6%
Geography
- United States94.88%
- United Kingdom2.27%
- Switzerland1.37%
- Ireland0.79%
- Netherlands0.69%
SMOT 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 | SMOT |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +6.8% |
| 1 month | −6.4% |
| 3 months | +1.2% |
| 1 year | +7.9% |
| 3 years | +12.1% |
| 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 | SMOT |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +6.8% | |
| 2025 | +6.4% | |
| 2024 | +10.7% | |
| 2023 | +17.3% | |
| 2022 | +5.4% |
SMOT in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on SMOT yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
SMOT Dividends
- 1.29%
- $0.50
- $0.50 per share
- Annual
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 22, 2025 | Dec 26, 2025 | $0.50 |
| Dec 23, 2024 | Dec 24, 2024 | $0.41 |
| Dec 18, 2023 | Dec 22, 2023 | $0.21 |
| Dec 19, 2022 | Dec 23, 2022 | $0.06 |
SMOT Risk
- 16.0%
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.
- 0.50
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.
- −23.4%
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.
- 1.09
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
SMOT Cost
- The middle half of US Multifactor funds
- Median 0.30%
71 of the 98 US Multifactor funds charge less.