ETF Spotlight on the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSEArca: MOO), part of an ongoing series.
Assets: $5.2 billion.
Objective: The Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF tries to reflect the performance of the DAXglobal Agribusiness Index, which follows companies involved in the agriculture business.
Holdings: Top holdings include Monsanto (NYSE: MON) 8.7%, Potash Corp. (NYSE: POT) 7.3%, Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) 7.2%, Syngenta AG (NYSE: SYT) 7.1% and Archer Daniels (NYSE: ADM) 5.5%.
What You Should Know:
- Van Eck‘s Market Vectors sponsors the fund.
- MOO has an expense ratio of 0.53%.
- The fund has 49 components and the top ten make up 57% of the overall portfolio.
- Sub-sector allocations include: basic materials 41.7%, Industrials 15.8% and consumer defensive 42.5%.
- Country allocations include: U.S. 38%, Canada 13.6%, Singapore 10.5%, Switzerland 7.1%, Malaysia 5.7%, Brazil 4.7%, Norway 4.1%, Netherlands 4.0%, Japan 3.7%, Australia 2.6%, Indonesia 1.7%, China 1.7%, U.K. 1.5%, Ireland 0.7%, Ukraine 0.5% and Argentina 0.1%.
- The ETF is down 2% over the past month, down 10.2% over the last three months and unchanged year-to-date.
- “While these varying degrees of operational leverage can render outperformance over certain periods, they do not provide a stable representation for the performance of agricultural commodities,” according to Morningstar analyst Abraham Bailin.
- “MOO’s holdings are made up primarily of grain-related agribusiness firms, counting the farmer as a chief customer. Farmer behavior is largely determined by notoriously volatile grain prices, so the fortunes of these companies can swing wildly,” Bailin added.
The Latest News:
- Agribusiness will benefit from population growth, rising living standards and increased use of biofuels, writes Sheridan Admans, investment research manager at The Share Centre, for FE Trustnet.
- Population growth should promote technological advances to meet demand and ensure quality of produce, replenishment of raw materials, distribution and efficient use of commodities.
- Urbanization in emerging economies will lead to a growing middle class and greater demand for meat and dairy products.
Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF
For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.