“With respect to performance, SCZ’s historic risk-adjusted return was among the best in the foreign small/mid-blend category, making it worthy of a Positive Performance Pillar rating,” said Morningstar. “By comparison, SCHC and VSS had more exposure to firms from the materials and energy sectors than SCZ. Consequently, their category-relative performance suffered more when commodity and oil prices declined in 2012 and 2015, respectively.”
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Over the past three years, SCZ is the best-performing member of the international small-cap ETF trio mentioned here. The iShares fund is up 38% over that period compared to an average gain of about 32.6% for SCHC and VSS.
“All three funds are cheap compared with the category average, which stood at about 1.33% as of July 31, 2018. SCHC is the cheapest in the category while VSS is only 2 basis points behind, so both have a Positive Price Pillar rating. SCZ is cheap compared with the category average and also rates Positive, but it isn’t competitive with the other two,” according to Morningstar.
For more information on small-capitalization stocks, visit our small-cap category.