There’s room for Value-focused ETFs

Article Excerpt

Value investing is just one of a number of investing styles or methodologies. In the last couple decades, some researchers have tried to pinpoint which of those styles outperforms the others over time. Apart from “Value” stocks, these researchers have identified factors including “Growth,” “Momentum” and “Size.” Value investors focus on the price that they pay for a stock relative to the company’s earnings or assets and would prefer to pay prices that reflect low price-to-earnings or price-to-book-value ratios. Value investors often believe that investors overpay for fast-growing “growth stocks,” while neglecting those with longer growth horizons. The benefits of value investing have been known since the 1930s. Its strongest advocates have been Benjamin Graham and, more recently, Warren Buffet. Considerable academic research suggests that value stocks provide above-market returns over time. Growth investors, on the other hand, are more interested in the immediate growth prospects of a company and will tend to pay an above-market p/e for companies that they see as having…