With the second half of 2023 just getting started, and with second-quarter earnings slated to kick off in earnest this week, now is an opportune time for registered investment advisors to consider fresh approaches to equity investing for client portfolios.
Wide moat investing may just be what the doctor ordered. In the first half of the year, the VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (MOAT ) and the VanEck Morningstar SMID Moat ETF (SMOT ) topped the relevant competing large-, mid-, and small-cap benchmarks.
Advisors looking to learn more about wide moat investing, MOAT, and SMOT can attend VanEck’s upcoming webcast on July 12. VanEck director of product management Brandon Rakszawski and Andrew Lane, Morningstar director of equity research — index strategies — are hosting the event. Morningstar media/entertainment analyst Neil Macker and Morningstar medical technology analyst Julie Utterback will join them.
Webcast Will Go Deep on Wide Moat Investing
The hour-long July 12 webcast is an ideal time for advisors new to wide moat investing to learn about the potency of this style. Likewise, advisors well-versed in the advantages of wide moat investing will glean benefits from the event.
For example, Rakszawski and the Morningstar team will provide thorough examination on the companies and sectors that are potentially primed for upside in the second half as well as the firms and sectors that could complement turbulent market environments. Webcast attendees should expect that some of the ideas mentioned will be highly pertinent to the MOAT and SMOT rosters.
Additionally, the hosts will examine specific companies that currently reside on the MOAT roster. The $9.7 billion MOAT, which turned 11 years old in April, follows the Morningstar® Wide Moat Focus Index. That benchmark intends to identify wide moat stocks trading at attractive valuations.
Currently, technology is the largest sector exposure in MOAT at 21.32%. Healthcare, financial services, and industrial stocks combine for roughly half the ETF’s portfolio. None of MOAT’s holdings exceed an allocation of 2.73%, indicating that single-stock risk is relatively benign in the fund.
While wide moat investing is a sector-agnostic strategy, not all of the 11 GICS sectors feature in MOAT. Currently, the ETF has no exposure to energy, real estate, and utilities stocks. SMOT, the small-stock wide moat ETF, features allocations to 10 of the 11 GICS sectors, with utilities being the exception.
Advisors that would like to attend the July 12 wide moat webinar can register here.
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