The growth style has been in fashion for many years, but value may soon come back in vogue. ETF investors should think about quality strategies that lean toward the value style to best capitalize on a potential shift in the investment environment.
“Value stocks have suffered, but may be showing signs of a comeback,” according to an OppenheimerFunds note.
According to Morningstar data, value stocks have underperformed growth stocks for the better part of the past decade. During this period, investors punished lower-valuation stocks and rewarded the higher-quality and momentum stocks, with growth and momentum both leading the charge in the current year.
Nevertheless, given the extended underperformance of the value style and potentially overdone rally in growth, investors have begun to shift back into value-oriented strategies this year, exhibiting a preference for low-cost index funds. Year-to-date, U.S. large-cap value ETFs have attracted $13 billion in net inflows, and the trend shows no signs of abating.
Related: 3 ETFs with Value Tilt to Best Access Current Markets
With the greater attention on value this year, investors may consider q a quality value strategy to potentially enhance market exposure. “Revenue Weighting Offers Purer Exposure to Value, but Does Not Ignore Growth,” according to OppenheimerFunds. “As investors shift their portfolio exposure toward value, they may want to consider the inherent benefits of ETFs and pursue a low-cost approach like revenue weighting. Revenue weighting provides the same broad coverage of the equity market as a market-capitalization-weighted portfolio does. However, it focuses on companies’ sales instead of their stock price and is thus driven to a purer exposure to value.”
For example, investors who believe in a return to fundamentals can look to the revenue-weighted methodology, including options like the Oppenheimer Large Cap Revenue ETF (NYSEArca: RWL), Oppenheimer Mid Cap Revenue ETF (NYSEArca: RWK) and Oppenheimer Small Cap Revenue ETF (NYSEArca: RWJ).
The underlying index implements a rules-based, disciplined smart beta indexing methodology targets known indices like the S&P 500 and tries to improve their performance return through weighting each security in the index by top line revenue. Components are then rebalanced every quarter to keep the Revenue-Weighted indices in line with the companies’ most recently reported revenue levels.
By rebalancing toward companies with persistent sales, revenue weighting helps keep a portfolio from overstaying during an overheating market. The result could be a portfolio with better risk-adjusted returns over the long haul.
“We believe quarterly rebalancing such strategies by revenue may offer investors three compelling benefits: 1) Maintains focus on lower-valued companies. 2) Reduces exposure to overpriced stocks. 3) Could cause underperformance in a bubble, but holds the potential for better returns during the rebound and over the long term,” according to OppenheimerFunds.
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