A smart beta exchange traded fund, the FlexShares International Quality Dividend ETF (IQDF) debuted on 04/12/2013, and offers broad exposure to the World ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Products that are based on market cap weighted indexes, which are strategies designed to reflect a specific market segment or the market as a whole, have traditionally dominated the ETF industry.
Market cap weighted indexes work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide a low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns.
But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.
Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.
While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Flexshares, and has been able to amass over $1.18 billion, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the World ETFs. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Index.
The Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Index is designed to provide exposure to a high-quality income-oriented portfolio of long-only international securities issued by non-U.S.-based companies, with an emphasis on long-term capital growth and a targeted overall beta that is similar to that of the Northern Trust International Large Cap Index.
Cost & Other Expenses
Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.47% for IQDF, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.93%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
When you look at individual holdings, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd Commonaccounts for about 4.85% of the fund's total assets, followed by Tokyo Electron Ltd Common Stock Jpy and Mediatek Inc Common Stock Twd 10.
The top 10 holdings account for about 22.31% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has gained about 19.07% so far this year and was up about 29.79% in the last one year (as of 08/13/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $27.91 and $35.61
The ETF has a beta of 0.69 and standard deviation of 14.83% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 265 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
FlexShares International Quality Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the World ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
FlexShares International Quality Dividend Dynamic ETF(IQDY) tracks Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Dynamic Index The fund has $113.41 million in assets. IQDY has an expense ratio of 0.47%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the World ETFs
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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FlexShares International Quality Dividend ETF (IQDF): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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