DFLV vs FLCV

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

FLCVAFederated Hermes MDT Large Cap Value 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.

FLCV Federated Hermes took MDT Advisers, its quant arm of 30-plus years, and bottled that process into an ETF: a bottom-up model re-ranks large-cap US stocks daily and holds roughly 120 of the undervalued ones.

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.

FLCV The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in common stocks of large-cap U.S. companies that are considered undervalued.

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.

• FLCV 0.32% net of a waiver through May 1, 2027 (0.43% gross), below the category median for active US value funds.
• The engine is not new: MDT Advisers has run this bottom-up quant process for Federated Hermes for more than 30 years, built to strip out human bias.hermes-investment.com
• Roughly 120 names, picked by a model that scores stocks on fundamental and technical factors daily rather than waiting on an index rebuild.hermes-investment.com
• Stands among the stronger packages in a crowded field of active US value ETFs.

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.

• FLCV Cheap for an active fund, not cheap outright: WTV charges 0.12% and AVLV 0.15%. The fee also reverts toward 0.43% gross if the waiver lapses after May 1, 2027.
• Thinly traded with a modest asset base, so spreads can be wider than in the category's giants. Limit orders earn their keep.
• Launched in 2024, so the ETF's own track record is short and spans only one stretch of market conditions.

Full DFLV profile⁠

Full FLCV profile⁠