ACSG vs DUSG

ACSGCAmerican Century Small Cap Growth Insights ETF

DUSGAU.S. Small Cap Growth Portfolio: ETF Class Shares

In short

ACSG American Century's 2025 entry in active small-cap growth: it hunts U.S. small companies whose businesses are visibly improving, then spreads the bet across roughly 300 names instead of a concentrated few.

DUSG A Dimensional small-cap growth strategy that finally got a ticker. DUSG is an exchange-traded share class of a portfolio running since 2012, screening small US companies for high profitability and cheaper relative price.

Stated mandate

ACSG The fund is an actively managed ETF seeking to outperform its benchmark over full market cycles by investing primarily in U.S. small-cap companies showing accelerating and sustainable business improvement.

DUSG The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• ACSG A clear thesis, actively run: U.S. small caps showing accelerating, sustainable business improvement, judged against the benchmark over full market cycles rather than quarter to quarter.americancentury.com
• 0.49% a year, a shade under the median active U.S. small-cap fund in its peer group. Active stock selection without the classic active price tag.
• Roughly 300 holdings, so no single small-cap blowup runs the show. Breadth closer to an index fund than to a concentrated stock picker.
• Sits in the upper half of its active U.S. small-cap peer group, with how the portfolio is built among its stronger points.

• DUSG Not a startup fund with a launch-day portfolio. The underlying strategy has run since 2012, and the ETF class is a new door into the same book of stocks.businesswire.com
• The screen does two jobs at once: small-cap growth companies, filtered for high profitability and lower relative price, instead of whatever the index says is popular.dimensional.com
• 0.33% a year for a systematically managed factor strategy, sitting right around the middle of the multifactor pack rather than at the premium end.
• Broad and diversified by design, holding a wide sweep of US small caps in a billion-dollar-plus portfolio, not a handful of high-conviction names.dimensional.com

Worth knowing

• ACSG Launched in October 2025, so the track record is short and any risk read rests on a thin slice of history.
• Small asset base and light trading mean wider bid-ask spreads than the giant small-cap index funds. Limit orders matter more here.
• Systematic peers cost less: AVSC at 0.25%, DUHP at 0.20%. The fee gap is what active selection costs versus a rules-based portfolio.

• DUSG It trades thinly. Light volume can mean wider gaps between the bid and the ask than you get with the household-name index ETFs.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, not monthly. The stated job here is long-term capital appreciation, not a paycheck.
• Fair pricing, not bargain pricing: broad US growth exposure in the same peer group costs far less (IUSG, 0.04%), minus the small-cap and profitability screens.

Full ACSG profile⁠

Full DUSG profile⁠