EFV vs ICOW

EFVBiShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF

ICOWCPacer Developed Markets International Cash Cows 100 ETF

In short

EFV Running since 2005, EFV is the big, heavily traded way to own the value half of developed markets outside North America: roughly 400 stocks tracking the MSCI EAFE Value Index for 0.31% a year.

ICOW Cash flow is the yardstick here, not book value. ICOW screens the FTSE Developed ex-US index and holds the 100 companies with the highest free-cash-flow yield: international value measured by money that actually landed.

Stated mandate

EFV The fund seeks to track an index of developed-market equities outside the United States and Canada that exhibit value characteristics.

ICOW The fund seeks capital appreciation through a rules-based screen of the FTSE Developed ex-US Index that selects 100 international companies based on free-cash-flow yield.

Why people hold it

• EFV 0.31% a year, below the typical fee among international-value funds, for a mandate that has been running since 2005.
• Tracks the MSCI EAFE Value Index closely and trades actively as a multi-billion-dollar fund, which keeps the cost of getting in and out low.
• About 400 developed-market value stocks in one ticker, picked by index rule rather than a manager's judgment.
• Sits among the strongest implementations in its international-value peer group, next to Dimensional's DFIV.

• ICOW One rule, no drift: rank developed ex-US companies on free-cash-flow yield, keep the top 100. The screen is mechanical, so no manager talks themselves into a story stock.paceretfs.com
• Cash generation is harder to dress up than a low price-to-book, so the portfolio leans value and quality from the same screen.
• Running since 2017, now a multi-billion-dollar fund with moderate trading volume that distributes quarterly.

Worth knowing

• EFV By design it holds only the cheap side of the EAFE universe, so its sector mix and results can look very different from a broad international index.
• Developed markets only: no US, no Canada, no emerging markets. It's a slice of international, not the whole thing.
• Not the cheapest seat in the room: FIVA runs 0.18% for its own version of international value.

• ICOW At 0.65% a year it costs roughly double the international-value median, and cheaper broad options sit in the same aisle (DFIV 0.27%, EFV 0.31%).
• About 110 holdings, so single names and sectors carry more weight than in a broad international value index.
• Against its international-value peers it lands in the lower half overall, with fee and portfolio breadth doing most of the work.

Full EFV profile⁠

Full ICOW profile⁠