DFLV vs DHLX

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

DHLXCDiamond Hill Large Cap Concentrated ETF

In short

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.

DHLX Twenty-ish US large caps, picked one at a time. Diamond Hill's ETF runs a concentrated value book measured against the Russell 1000 Value Index, which means it deliberately looks nothing like that index.

Stated mandate

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.

DHLX The ETF seeks long-term capital appreciation. Under normal conditions, it invests at least 80% of net assets in U.S. equity securities of large-cap companies the adviser believes are undervalued, in a concentrated portfolio of approximately 20–30 securities.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• DHLX A genuinely concentrated book: roughly 20 to 30 US large caps the adviser judges undervalued, with at least 80% of assets in that mandate. No closet indexing here.diamond-hill.com
• Runs Diamond Hill's house intrinsic-value process: model years of a business's future cash flows, estimate what it is worth, then buy at a discount to that number.jpmorgan.comsec.gov
• At 0.55% a year it undercuts several active rivals benchmarked to the same index (BUSA, OAKM, PZLV) and sits at the median for its active value cohort.
• Pays distributions quarterly, and the mandate is US equity only, so there is no currency layer or foreign withholding in the mix.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• DHLX Systematic value peers cost a fraction of this: AVLV 0.15%, DFLV 0.21%, WTV 0.12%. The stock picking has to carry that fee gap.
• Concentration cuts both ways. In a non-diversified book of 20 to 30 names, one company's stumble lands with real weight.diamond-hill.com
• Launched in September 2025, so the ETF's own record is short, the asset base is small and trading is moderate rather than deep.

Full DFLV profile⁠

Full DHLX profile⁠