AVMV vs DFLV

AVMVAAvantis U.S. Mid Cap Value ETF

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

In short

AVMV Avantis points its cheap-and-profitable engine at the market's forgotten middle: roughly 300 US mid-cap value names, actively run, priced at 0.20% a year.

DFLV Dimensional's value playbook in an ETF wrapper: large-cap value that also screens for profitability, spread across roughly 300 names, run by research rather than an index. Active by design, index-fund cheap in practice.

Stated mandate

AVMV The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through a broad portfolio of U.S. mid-cap companies. It emphasizes lower valuations and higher profitability while using active investment decisions based on current market information rather than replicating a specified index.

DFLV The ETF seeks long-term capital appreciation. Its investment approach combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading, emphasizing long-term expected-return drivers and broad diversification.

Why people hold it

• AVMV Costs 0.20% a year, under the median fee for actively managed US value funds. Daily active oversight at close to index-fund pricing.avantisinvestors.com
• Screens for low valuations paired with high profitability, then leans toward the smaller end of its mid-cap universe. Roughly 300 holdings across sectors.avantisinvestors.com
• No index to copy. It can trade on current prices rather than wait for a scheduled reconstitution, avoiding the crowd at fixed rebalance dates.avantisinvestors.comcibc.com
• Rates among the stronger implementations in a crowded field of active US value funds, helped by low cost and a broad, disciplined portfolio.

• DFLV Costs 0.21% a year, well under half the 0.55% median for US value funds in its peer group. Active management without the active price tag.
• Cheap alone doesn't get you in. The portfolio screens on value and profitability together, a filter aimed at cut-rate stocks that actually earn money.
• No index to shadow. Dimensional can trade on its own schedule and spreads the money across about 300 large-cap names instead of a handful of bets.
• Sits in the top tier of the US value funds we grade, and it is a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.

Worth knowing

• AVMV Thinly traded next to the giants of the value aisle, so spreads can widen, most noticeable on large orders or fast markets.
• Value and profitability screens lean into cheaper, economically sensitive mid caps, which can swing harder than a broad large-cap fund.avantisinvestors.com
• Launched November 2023, so the live record is short, though the Avantis team has run this framework since 2019.prnewswire.com

• DFLV Not the cheapest seat in the room: AVLV and SEIV run 0.15%, WTV 0.12%. You're paying a bit more for Dimensional's process.
• Being benchmark-free cuts both ways. With no index to measure against, there is no tracking-error scoreboard, and outcomes ride on the manager's judgment.
• Launched in December 2022, so the ETF's own record is short, and a value tilt behaves differently from the broad market. It pays quarterly.

Full AVMV profile⁠

Full DFLV profile⁠