2025 has offered investors much to think about. Tariffs, concentration risk, high valuations, and more all loom over portfolios. That uncertainty may be contributing to rising interest in foreign diversification. While global equities have disappointed in recent years, dollar activity in the medium term could benefit those firms. What’s more, many investors may lack important diversification to begin with. International small-cap ETF AVDV provides a notable example, adding $1 billion in AUM since the start of 2025, per YCharts.
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The Avantis International Small Cap Value ETF (AVDV ) launched in 2019 and hit its five-year anniversary last year. The international small-cap ETF charges a 36 basis point fee to actively invest in non-U.S. small-cap value stocks. The ETF frequently employs fundamental research to assess firms’ overall outlook. Those fundamental factors the managers scrutinize include revenue, expenses, price-to-book value, cash flow, and more.
Together, that approach has helped the ETF return 13.27% over the last year, per Avantis Investors data as of February 28. That performance helped the fund outperform its benchmark, the MSCI World Ex-USA Small Cap Index in that time. The index returned 7.1% in that same time frame. AVDV also outperformed its benchmark over five years, and it has done so YTD, returning 4.15% in that time.
That performance and rising AUM have helped the fund also hit a key buy signal, per YCharts data. AVDV’s price currently sits above both its 50- and 200-day simple moving averages. That price relationship indicates a healthy degree of momentum for the fund.
With its focus on value small-caps abroad and active approach, AVDV could really appeal amid rising uncertainty. By adding that foreign diversification and finding potential high performers, the international small-cap ETF could intrigue.
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