Fund Evaluator:

LSV Small Cap Value Investor Overview

LSV Small Cap Value Investor (LVAQX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Small Value fund. LSV Fund launched the fund in 2014.

The investment seeks long-term growth of capital. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities of small-capitalization companies. For purposes of this policy, a small-capitalization company is a company with a market capitalization of less than $2.5 billion, or the highest market capitalization in the Russell 2000® Value Index, whichever is greater, at the time of initial purchase.

About LSV Small Cap Value Investor (LVAQX)

There are 6 members of the management team with an average tenure of 10.90 years: Puneet Mansharamani (2013), Greg Sleight (2014), Guy Lakonishok (2014), Gal Skarishevsky (2025), Josef Lakonishok (2013), Menno Vermeulen (2013). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund 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%. LSV Small Cap Value Investor has 215 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 12.0% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

LSV Small Cap Value Investor is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. LSV Small Cap Value Investor has 5.5% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 92.6%. There is 5.5% 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). LSV Small Cap Value Investor has 1.9% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $10 million in total assets, which is below the $418 million 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.

LVAQX 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 LSV Small Cap Value Investor expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Small Value category. LSV Small Cap Value Investor has an expense ratio of 1.08%, which is 7% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. 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. LSV Small Cap Value Investor has a portfolio turnover rate of 33%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 127% for the Small Value category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, LSV Small Cap Value Investor returned 5.0%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Small Value category had an average return of 5.7%. 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 funds in that category.

LSV Small Cap Value Investor has a trailing yield of 1.38%, which is above the 0.77% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually 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.

LSV Small Cap Value Investor Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 18.2%, 2.5 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 29.9% over the past year (grade of D), 15.4% over the past three years (grade of C) and 9.5% per year over the past five years (grade of B) and 9.5% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

For more mutual fund grades, analysis and screening tools to help your investment discovery, join AAII for a $2, full-access trial. Learn more here: https://invest.aaii.com/membership.

Otherwise, for more information about LSV Small Cap Value Investor, including its riskiness, submit your email to unlock the rest of the article.