KEAT vs TACU

KEATDKeating Active ETF

TACUAT. Rowe Price Active Core U.S. Equity ETF

In short

KEAT A boutique stock picker in a corner of the market dominated by giant quant shops. Keating runs a hand-built equity portfolio chasing both income and growth, and charges active-management prices to do it.

TACU T. Rowe Price's quant-plus-fundamental take on core large-cap U.S. stock, benchmarked to the Russell 1000. Gross fee 0.14%, fully waived to zero through January 30, 2027.

Stated mandate

KEAT The Fund seeks total return through income and capital appreciation.

TACU The fund seeks long-term capital growth through a primarily U.S. equity portfolio. It combines quantitative models with fundamental, bottom-up analysis and seeks excess returns relative to the Russell 1000 Index.

Why people hold it

• KEAT Genuinely active, not an index in disguise: holdings come from fundamental research, one company at a time, rather than a rules-based screen.
• A two-sided mandate. It targets total return from income and capital appreciation, and distributions are paid on a quarterly schedule.
• Wide toolkit for an equity fund: common stock, preferred shares, REITs and depositary receipts all sit inside the mandate, so the income can come from more than one place.

• TACU Fee fully waived: 0.14% gross, zero net through January 30, 2027. That sits below every top-scoring peer in the category, including DFAU at 0.12% with no waiver.troweprice.com
• Quant models feed bottom-up stock picking with tilts to profitability, quality and value, chasing excess return over the Russell 1000 while holding tracking error tight.troweprice.com
• Several hundred large-cap names, so no single position runs the show. One of the stronger profiles in a crowded active U.S. equity field.troweprice.com

Worth knowing

• KEAT The 0.85% fee sits above the typical active US equity fund at 0.65%, and well above the cohort's highest-rated names: DFAU at 0.12%, AVLC at 0.15%, DFAC at 0.17%.
• Thinly traded and small. Bid-ask spreads tend to be wider on funds like this, which adds a cost that never shows up in the expense ratio.
• Launched in 2024, so the record is short. There is not yet enough history to see how the manager's picks behave across a full market cycle.

• TACU Launched in December 2025, so the live record is short and the risk read rests on limited history.
• Still a small fund that trades lightly, which can mean wider spreads than the category's giants.
• Distributions are annual at most, with no declared income target. This is a growth mandate, not a cash-flow one.

Full KEAT profile⁠

Full TACU profile⁠