AVSE vs EMKT

AVSEAAvantis Responsible Emerging Markets Equity ETF

EMKTCLazard Emerging Markets Opportunities ETF

In short

AVSE Avantis's emerging markets workhorse with a values filter bolted on: the same profitability tilt and thousands-of-stocks build as its flagship EM fund, at the same 0.33% fee, minus the issuers its team flags on ESG grounds.

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

AVSE The fund is an actively managed emerging-markets equity strategy that seeks to identify securities with higher expected returns while excluding issuers that raise concerns under the portfolio team's environmental, social, and governance evaluation.

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

• AVSE Charges 0.33% a year, roughly half the typical fee among actively managed emerging markets funds. The cost drag stays out of the way of the strategy.
• The screen trims rather than concentrates: the portfolio still spans thousands of emerging markets stocks, not a short list of approved names.avantisinvestors.com
• Active in the Avantis sense: a systematic tilt toward more profitable companies, not a manager's hunches about which stocks pop next.
• Priced level with Avantis's mainstream EM funds (AVEM, AVXC) and JPMorgan's JEMA at 0.33%, and one of the stronger builds in the active EM 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

• AVSE Thinly traded next to the index-fund giants of emerging markets, so bid-ask spreads can widen and larger orders need care.
• The ESG exclusions are the portfolio team's own judgment calls, so the holdings and the results will drift from a plain broad EM benchmark.
• Emerging markets equity brings currency swings and country-level political risk, and this fund holds that exposure directly. Pays quarterly.

• 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 AVSE profile⁠

Full EMKT profile⁠