DFLV vs FEMD

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

FEMDDFirst Eagle Mid Cap Equity 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.

FEMD First Eagle takes its value discipline down the market cap ladder: an active mid-cap fund hunting companies whose problems look temporary or fixable, with a visible catalyst attached. Stock picking, not a cheapness screen. It launched in 2026.

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.

FEMD The fund seeks long-term growth of capital and uses a bottom-up fundamental process for U.S. mid-cap companies, focusing on transitory or fixable issues and identifiable catalysts.

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.

• FEMD The process is judgment, not a filter: bottom-up work on U.S. mid caps with transitory or fixable issues and an identifiable catalyst, marketed as Catalyst-Driven Value.firsteagle.com
• 0.55% buys active management and sits right at the median for its active value peer group, so the First Eagle name carries no premium.
• Mid cap is the whole mandate, not a tilt. It measures itself against the Russell Mid Cap Value and Russell Mid Cap indexes rather than a large-cap yardstick.firsteagle.com

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.

• FEMD Systematic routes to the same asset class cost less: Avantis' AVMV charges 0.20% for rules-based U.S. mid-cap value.
• A 2026 launch with a small asset base. There is no long record to judge, and young, thinly traded funds can show wider spreads, so limit orders earn their keep.
• The stated goal is long-term growth of capital. Income is not part of the design.

Full DFLV profile⁠

Full FEMD profile⁠