Dimensional US Small Cap ETF

DFAS

Market cap $15B

DFA Dimensional US Small Cap ETF (DFAS) receives a 'Hold' rating due to underperformance versus DFSV and other small-cap peers. DFAS offers broad diversification and systematic factor tilts but lags DFSV in valuation, dividend yield, and long-term returns. DFAS's modest overweight to financials may offer some resilience in a rising-rate environment, but better small-cap options exist.

Small-cap stocks and ETFs don't get as much spotlight as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

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And what to look for when shopping for one.

Dimensional U.S. Small Cap ETF has a portfolio of 2,000+ U.S. small caps, blending size, value, and quality factors. DFAS has moderate value characteristics and is well-diversified across sectors and holdings, with a focus on industrials and financials. Despite recent underperformance, DFAS has nicely outperformed the Russell 2000 benchmark since its listing, with lower volatility.

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DFAS offers diversified small-cap exposure with over 2,000 holdings, focusing on high profitability and disciplined valuation, outperforming the Russell 2000 over time. The fund avoids excessive micro-cap and biotech exposure, maintaining above-average profitability and a balanced sector allocation versus peers. DFAS has slightly higher expenses but benefits from low turnover, strong liquidity, and a quality tilt that supports resilience in challenging environments.

Zachary Evens: Small stocks have underperformed their larger counterparts for a long time, prompting some people, including myself, to ask: why bother with small-cap ETFs? While there's an argument to be made on both sides, small-cap valuations are undeniably low, offering investors some upside if they converge with their fair value. Small-cap stocks are risky, though, and investors should control risk if they aim to capture that upside.

Strong returns in U.S. stocks, particularly over the past two plus years, have led investors to question the relative lack of companies going public via the IPO process — as well as the potential implications for the IPO market in the long term. According to active equity managers, a combination of increased public market regulation, a reduced pipeline of potential offerings following the prior boom, the rising role of large private asset managers in capital raising, and near-term uncertainty surrounding government policy are all contributing factors. At Russell Investments, we think investors benefit from taking a long-term view.

Little-known China AI startup DeepSeek sent fear rippling throughout the markets this week by announcing major strides in its large language model technology at just a fraction of the cost of what many experts thought possible. That sparked a mini-collapse among big-cap tech stocks like Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia, which tumbled 20% at its low.