FDEV vs PIEL

FDEVAFidelity International Multifactor ETF

PIELFPacer International Export Leaders ETF

In short

FDEV Four factors (value, quality, momentum, low volatility) blended into one developed-markets index fund at 0.18% a year. Fidelity's answer to paying up for a single-factor tilt overseas.

PIEL Most international funds hand you companies that mostly sell at home. PIEL screens developed markets outside the US for the opposite: large and mid caps with heavy foreign sales and high free cash flow margins, then keeps the top 100.

Stated mandate

FDEV The fund seeks returns generally corresponding to the Fidelity International Multifactor Index before fees and expenses.

PIEL The fund seeks global market growth by screening the FTSE Developed ex US Index for the top 100 large- and mid-capitalization companies with high foreign sales and high free-cash-flow margins.

Why people hold it

• FDEV 0.18% a year, less than half the typical fee in its international multifactor group, and within a rounding error of the cheapest name there (INTF at 0.16%).
• One index does the work of four screens: value, quality, momentum and low volatility applied together, instead of you stacking separate single-factor funds.
• Roughly 220 developed-market stocks outside the US, picked by published index rules rather than a manager's hunches, with cash paid out quarterly.
• Sits in the top quartile of a 29-fund international factor cohort, which is a crowded field full of far pricier attempts at the same job.

• PIEL Two-step screen with a clear logic: filter the FTSE Developed ex US Index for high foreign sales, then keep the 100 highest free cash flow margins, weighted by market cap with a 5% cap per name.sec.govpaceretfs.com
• Not a lab experiment. It is the overseas build of the export-leaders template Pacer has run on US stocks since 2018, pointed at non-US exporters instead.paceretfs.comstockanalysis.com
• The cash-flow step does real work: ranking on free cash flow margin tilts the basket toward companies converting sales into cash, which the broad developed ex-US index does not screen for.paceretfs.com
• Rules-based and transparent: roughly 100 stocks, a published index, and a 5% cap that stops one giant exporter from running the portfolio.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• FDEV Thinly traded. Spreads can quietly cost more than the fee, so limit orders matter more here than with the category's household names.
• A 2019 launch still in the mid-size asset range, so there is no decades-long record to lean on the way older international index funds offer.
• Blending four factors means none of them drives the bus. When value or momentum alone runs hot, this owns only a slice of that move.

• PIEL The screen costs you: 0.49% sits above the typical international multifactor fund, and well above plain factor peers like GSWO (0.15%) and INTF (0.16%).
• It listed in December 2025 and is still a small fund, so trading is thinner than at the category's heavyweights and bid-ask spreads can run wider.
• Short history means there is no record yet of how an exporter-and-cash-flow screen behaves through a full cycle in currencies, trade policy, or a global slowdown.

Full FDEV profile⁠

Full PIEL profile⁠