EVTR vs GRNB

EVTRAEaton Vance Total Return Bond ETF

GRNBAVanEck Green Bond ETF

In short

EVTR Most core bond ETFs just clone the index. EVTR goes active: a core-plus mix of investment grade bonds with room for opportunistic higher-yielding picks, from a strategy whose lineage dates to 1984, priced under its category median.

GRNB Its peer group is stacked with total-bond-market giants. GRNB goes narrow instead: only dollar-denominated green bonds funding environmental projects, issued worldwide by governments, supranationals and companies. A 2017-vintage specialist at 0.20%.

Stated mandate

EVTR The Fund seeks above-average total return over a three- to five-year market cycle. It invests primarily in diversified U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade fixed-income securities and may opportunistically invest in lower-rated or unrated securities.

GRNB The fund seeks to track the S&P Green Bond U.S. Dollar Select Index before fees and expenses. The index covers U.S.-dollar-denominated green bonds financing environmentally friendly projects and issued globally by supranational, government, and corporate entities.

Why people hold it

• EVTR Active management at a below-average price. Its 0.32% fee sits under the median for aggregate bond ETFs (0.36%), which is unusual for a stock-picker's approach to bonds.
• Core-plus by design: a diversified base of investment grade bonds, plus opportunistic higher-yielding positions, run by Eaton Vance's broad markets fixed income team.eatonvance.com
• The portfolio does what the prospectus says it does, and it stands in the top quartile of its aggregate-bond peer group on our review.
• Pays monthly, and it is a multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands regularly enough to keep trading friction modest.

• GRNB The mandate is the point: bonds whose proceeds fund environmentally friendly projects, tracked to the S&P Green Bond U.S. Dollar Select Index instead of a generic aggregate benchmark.vaneck.com
• 0.20% a year runs below the typical fund in its category, and it sits in the top quartile of a large aggregate-bond peer group on how closely it tracks and what it holds.
• Global sourcing, dollar pricing: supranational, government and corporate issuers, roughly 500 bonds, all USD-denominated, so no currency translation layered on top.
• Distributions land monthly, and the fund has been running since 2017.

Worth knowing

• EVTR The index giants in this category (BND, SPAB, SCHZ) charge 0.03%. That is roughly a tenth of EVTR's fee, so the manager's calls carry the burden of justifying the gap.
• No index to grade the work against. Sector and credit decisions drive the outcome, in both directions.eatonvance.com
• The plus in core-plus is credit. Opportunistic higher-yielding bonds add default risk that a pure investment grade tracker does not carry, on top of normal rate sensitivity.eatonvance.com

• GRNB Thinly traded next to core bond giants like BND, so spreads and order type matter more here.
• Green describes what the proceeds fund, not an issuer's whole business; the credit still sits with governments, supranationals and companies.
• The screen costs extra: plain aggregate rivals like BND and SPAB list expense ratios near 0.03%.

Full EVTR profile⁠

Full GRNB profile⁠