AVLC vs PRAY

AVLCAAvantis U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF

PRAYCFIS Christian Stock Fund

In short

AVLC Active management with index-fund manners: roughly 900 U.S. large caps, with the dial turned toward cheaper, more profitable companies. Avantis charges 0.15% a year to do it.

PRAY Faith screening with receipts: PRAY runs a growth-at-a-reasonable-price screen on U.S. large caps, then filters the survivors through a third-party Christian values tool, eValueator. Active management, 0.68% a year, no fee waiver.

Stated mandate

AVLC The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It invests broadly in U.S. large-capitalization companies while using active decisions to overweight lower valuations and higher profitability.

PRAY The fund seeks income and long-term capital growth. It actively invests primarily in diversified U.S. large-cap equities selected through a proprietary approach intended to participate in companies’ profit and valuation-expansion cycles while aligning with Christian values.

Why people hold it

• AVLC 0.15% a year against a 0.65% median for active U.S. equity funds. That is passive-style pricing on an actively run book.
• Holds about 900 names against the Russell 1000, so the value and profitability tilts sit on top of broad market exposure instead of a concentrated bet.avantisinvestors.com
• One of the stronger builds in the active U.S. equity group, priced in the same neighborhood as the Dimensional core funds (DFAU, DFAC) it competes with.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades steadily, so spreads and liquidity are rarely the sticking point. Distributions are paid quarterly.

• PRAY The rules are in writing: the prospectus commits at least 80% of net assets to stocks passing its Christian values filter, and names the excluded businesses (abortion drugs, pornography, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, indiscriminate armaments).sec.govfaithinvestorservices.com
• The screen is not just the manager's gut. A third-party tool, eValueator, applies a consistent methodology alongside the adviser's own research, and the adviser can drop a holding if a company's conduct stops fitting.sec.gov
• Holdings line up closely with the actively managed U.S. large-cap, values-screened mandate it advertises, which puts it in the upper half of its peer group.
• At 0.68% a year with no fee waiver in play, the cost sits near the median for actively managed U.S. equity ETFs, despite the extra screening layer riding on top.

Worth knowing

• AVLC Launched in 2023. The tilt philosophy is well worn at Avantis, but this fund's own live record is still short.
• Active, not index-tracking. The Russell 1000 is a reference point, not a leash, so holdings and weights can drift from it.
• Leaning toward cheaper, higher-profitability companies means stretches where it moves differently from the plain cap-weighted market, in either direction.avantisinvestors.com

• PRAY Thinly traded next to the category's heavyweights, and a small fund by ETF standards, so bid-ask spreads and order size are worth watching on the way in and out.
• Costs more than broad U.S. core index-style peers such as DFAU (0.12%) and AVLC (0.15%), neither of which uses a waiver. That gap is the price of an active manager plus a values overlay.
• Screening out whole industries narrows the universe, so the portfolio can look very different from a broad U.S. index in any given stretch, in both directions.sec.gov

Full AVLC profile⁠

Full PRAY profile⁠