DUSG vs ESSC

DUSGAU.S. Small Cap Growth Portfolio: ETF Class Shares

ESSCCEventide Small Cap ETF

In short

DUSG A Dimensional small-cap growth strategy that finally got a ticker. DUSG is an exchange-traded share class of a portfolio running since 2012, screening small US companies for high profitability and cheaper relative price.

ESSC Eventide takes its values-based screen down the market cap ladder: an active, long-only US small-cap portfolio measured against the Bloomberg U.S. 2000, at 0.49%. Launched in 2025, so the screen is the pitch, not the history.

Stated mandate

DUSG The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation.

ESSC The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by primarily investing in U.S. small-cap companies that Eventide identifies as creating value for stakeholders under its values-based screening criteria. It is actively managed using a long-only approach.

Why people hold it

• DUSG Not a startup fund with a launch-day portfolio. The underlying strategy has run since 2012, and the ETF class is a new door into the same book of stocks.businesswire.com
• The screen does two jobs at once: small-cap growth companies, filtered for high profitability and lower relative price, instead of whatever the index says is popular.dimensional.com
• 0.33% a year for a systematically managed factor strategy, sitting right around the middle of the multifactor pack rather than at the premium end.
• Broad and diversified by design, holding a wide sweep of US small caps in a billion-dollar-plus portfolio, not a handful of high-conviction names.dimensional.com

• ESSC The screen is the point. An active, long-only manager buying US small caps it judges to be creating value for stakeholders, not an index fund with a label bolted on.
• 0.49% a year for hands-on small-cap stock picking, a shade under the middle of its actively managed small-cap peer group.
• Four signals in the mix (growth, momentum, quality, value) rather than a single style bet, with the Bloomberg U.S. 2000 Total Return Index as the yardstick.

Worth knowing

• DUSG It trades thinly. Light volume can mean wider gaps between the bid and the ask than you get with the household-name index ETFs.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, not monthly. The stated job here is long-term capital appreciation, not a paycheck.
• Fair pricing, not bargain pricing: broad US growth exposure in the same peer group costs far less (IUSG, 0.04%), minus the small-cap and profitability screens.

• ESSC Opened in late September 2025, so there is very little performance or risk history behind it yet.
• Still a small, lightly traded fund, which can mean wider gaps between bid and ask than the household names in the small-cap aisle.
• At 0.49% it runs about double systematic small-cap peers such as AVUV and AVSC at 0.25%, so the screen has to carry that gap.

Full DUSG profile⁠

Full ESSC profile⁠