AVEM vs EMKT

AVEMAAvantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF

EMKTCLazard Emerging Markets Opportunities ETF

In short

AVEM Emerging markets taken whole: roughly 3,900 stocks, large down to small, with an active tilt toward cheaper and more profitable companies. Avantis charges about half the typical active EM fee to do it.

EMKT Old-school value hunting in emerging markets: Lazard's managers buy non-US companies they read as cheap on earnings, cash flow, or asset values. A human-picked portfolio with roots in 2013, not an index clone.

Stated mandate

AVEM Seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in a broad range of companies across emerging-market countries and all market capitalizations.

EMKT The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation. It primarily invests in equity securities, principally common stocks, of non-U.S. companies whose main activities are in emerging markets and that the manager considers undervalued based on earnings, cash flow, or asset values.

Why people hold it

• AVEM Fee is 0.33% a year against a 0.65% median for active emerging-markets funds, so the active tilt starts from a low-cost base.
• Owns roughly 3,900 names across the MSCI Emerging Markets IMI universe, including small caps, rather than a short stock-picker's list.avantisinvestors.com
• Active, but rules-driven: the portfolio leans toward lower valuations and higher profitability instead of relying on manager hunches.
• Running since 2019 and now a multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund. One of the strongest implementations in its emerging-markets peer group.

• EMKT Real stock picking: managers target EM companies they judge undervalued on earnings, cash flow, or asset values, so the lineup can look nothing like a cap-weighted benchmark.
• The strategy dates to 2013, so it has been run through multiple emerging-market cycles rather than launched into whatever theme is hot this year.
• Simple plumbing: a standard 1940 Act equity fund holding common stocks of non-US companies, not a derivatives wrapper you need a manual to decode.

Worth knowing

• AVEM Emerging-market equity is a bumpy asset class, and returns arrive in dollars, so local currency swings add a second layer of movement.
• The value and profitability tilts are the whole point, which means the fund is built to drift from a plain market-cap EM index, sometimes for long stretches.
• No China carve-out: this one takes the full EM opportunity set. Avantis runs AVXC on the same approach for those who want it without China.

• EMKT At 0.74% it runs above the typical active EM fund, and the cohort's strongest-rated names (AVEM, JEMA, AVXC) charge 0.33%. It sits in the lower half of that peer group.
• Thin trading volume and a modest asset base mean bid-ask spreads matter more here than in the giant EM index funds.
• Cash distributions arrive once or twice a year at most; the stated goal is long-term capital appreciation, not income.

Full AVEM profile⁠

Full EMKT profile⁠