Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF

SYLD

Market cap $968M

The $85 billion listing last month of SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace, satellite communications and artificial intelligence company, was an important market event. The company's dual-class share structure, conferring disproportionate voting power on its founder, could be expected to serve as a template for the next wave of high-profile IPOs, with OpenAI and Anthropic expected to follow suit in the coming quarters.

Despite continued concentration in mega-cap technology stocks, US dividend-focused strategies have generally remained competitive and historically experienced more shallow drawdowns than broader equity markets. Last year, US companies paid a record US$704.8 billion in dividends - the 15th consecutive annual record. Concurrently, dividend growth accelerated across several international markets, highlighting the continued strength of shareholder-return trends.

Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF (SYLD) employs a shareholder yield strategy, emphasizing dividends, buybacks, and debt paydown, resulting in deep value exposure. SYLD is overweight energy, consumer discretionary, and financials, but underweight technology, industrials, and real estate, leading to modest growth and profitability metrics. At a 10.9x P/E, SYLD trades at a significant discount to the S&P MidCap 400 and peers, but its growth (-3.2% earnings, 0.5% sales) and profitability (12.5% ROE) lag benchmarks.

The Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF targets U.S. stocks with high shareholder yield, combining dividends, buybacks, and debt paydowns using a quantitative approach. SYLD's portfolio is diversified across 99 small- and mid-cap stocks, with notable exposure in financials, consumer discretionary, energy, and materials, and strong value characteristics. SYLD has outperformed the S&P MidCap 400 benchmark since 2013 and several peer ETFs since 2017, though with higher volatility and a relatively high 0.59% expense ratio.

SYLD is one of Cambria's Total Shareholder Yield ETFs, offering exposure to 100 companies with high combinations of dividends, buybacks, and debt retirement. Its expense ratio is 0.59%. SYLD was one of the worst-performing funds over the last year, and my fundamental analysis reveals the likely source is its substantial exposure to the size and value factors. In contrast, its growth rates are extremely poor, and with S&P 500 Index sales and earnings surprises still solid, this lack of exposure to the growth factor matters.

Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF holds 100 stocks with high shareholder yield, a factor combining dividends, buybacks and debt reduction. SYLD is focused on small and mid-caps, with significant exposure in consumer discretionary and financials. SYLD has strong value characteristics and has outperformed a mid-cap benchmark since inception, even though it has lagged for 12 months.

Meb Faber talks to Kirk Spano about shareholder yield, ETFs, and what tends to happen at the end of secular booms. A slightly less strong USD and foreign and emerging markets.

The Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF is recommended for the next decade due to its focus on high shareholder yield through dividends, buybacks, and debt reduction. Shareholder Yield prevents inefficient use of free cash flows by management, offering a compelling long-term investment case with higher returns and lower drawdowns. SYLD is well-positioned for valuation compression with a lower PE ratio and better value metrics compared to the S&P 500 and mid-cap value category.

Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF is an actively managed fund selecting 100 securities from a universe of approximately 3,000 U.S. securities based on their shareholder yield, value, quality, and momentum characteristics. Since its strategy change on June 1, 2020, the SYLD ETF has delivered an outstanding 147% total return, trouncing peers like VFVA and FMDE. However, its recent results aren't very impressive. The reason is that SYLD is a niche product, likely best suited to periods of economic recovery, like the period immediately following the Q1 2020 pandemic crash.

SYLD has rallied so far in 2024 but has also underperformed the S&P 500 in 2024 amid relative weakness in areas away from megacap tech. The betting market predicts an 80% chance of a Fed rate cut in September, and lower interest rates could help companies with high total shareholder yields. SYLD remains a compelling value with the potential for equity market rotation favoring the total shareholder yield factor, and I point out key price levels on the chart to monitor.