ETF Evaluator: Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF (DFSV) Follow This ETF

Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF Overview

Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF (DFSV) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Small Value exchange-traded fund (ETF). Dimensional Fund Advisors launched the ETF in 2022.

The investment seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation. The Portfolio, using a market capitalization weighted approach, is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of the readily marketable securities of U.S. small cap companies that the Advisor determines to be lower relative price stocks. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities of small cap U.S. companies.

About Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF (DFSV)

There are 4 members of the management team with an average tenure of 4.35 years: Jed Fogdall (2022), Joel Schneider (2022), Joseph Hohn (2022) and Marc Leblond (2022). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Russell 2000 Value TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF has 1018 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 7.2% of the ETF’s assets. The ETF meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The ETF is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity ETF group. Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF has 1.9% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 98.1% There is 1.9% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF has 0.0% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $7 billion in total assets, which is above the $2 billion average for the Small Value category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

DFSV Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Small Value category. Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF has an expense ratio of 0.30%, which is 37% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 9%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 61% for the Small Value category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF returned 3.2%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Small Value category had an average return of 4.6%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all ETFs in that category.

Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF has a trailing yield of 1.38%, which is below the 1.78% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 18.7%, 0.6 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of C. The fund has returned 33.8% over the past year (grade of B) and 16.4% over the past three years (grade of B).

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