AVUV vs DFLV

AVUVAAvantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

In short

AVUV The Dimensional playbook in an ETF wrapper: roughly 800 cheap U.S. small caps, weighted so the profitable ones count for more, run actively for a quarter of a percent 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

AVUV The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in U.S. small-cap companies selected for low valuations and higher profitability. It combines broad diversification and efficient implementation with active decisions based on current market information.

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

• AVUV 0.25% a year, less than half the typical actively run U.S. small-cap fund, and well under the 0.47% at BSVO, which points at the same Russell 2000 Value yardstick.
• Cheap alone can mean cheap-and-broken. Avantis screens for profitability alongside low valuations, so higher-earning small caps carry more weight.avantisinvestors.com
• About 800 names: a value tilt delivered with index-like breadth rather than a stock picker's short list, and distributions land quarterly.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest implementations in the active U.S. small-cap group.

• 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

• AVUV This is a style bet, not a market proxy. Small caps priced for value swing harder than the broad market and can move out of step with it for long stretches.
• Active, not an index tracker. The Russell 2000 Value is a reference point, not a leash, so the holdings and the ride can diverge from it.
• Sibling AVSC charges the same 0.25% but casts a wider small-cap net, so the real question is how much value tilt you want.

• 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 AVUV profile⁠

Full DFLV profile⁠