Brandes U.S. Value ETF

Brandes U.S. Value ETF (BUSA) is an actively managed fund. Its manager, Brandes Investment Partners, picks about 63 mostly U.S. stocks it believes trade below their true worth, such as Merck, Bank of America and Becton Dickinson (as of June 30, 2026). It trades rarely, with 4% portfolio turnover, and leans toward banks and health care. It costs 0.60% a year, more than all six similar value ETFs compared, which average 0.34%.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, BUSA returned +18.2%, 6th of 7 among similar funds.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2024 (+15.8%); its best was 2025 (+17.6%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 14.2% (Nov 29, 2024 to Apr 8, 2025), recovered by Jul 1, 2025.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 63 securities; the ten largest made up 23.83% of assets.

By sector

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors added a net $5.3M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +5.22%, -0.17%, +1.85%.

BUSA doesn't track an index. Brandes Investment Partners, the fund's advisor, chooses each stock. Under normal conditions, at least 80% of net assets go into U.S. value companies. A company counts as "value" if it belongs to the MSCI ACWI Value Investable Market Index or the Russell 3000 Value Index, or if Brandes judges it undervalued based on earnings, assets, cash flow, dividends or balance-sheet strength. Holdings are typically companies worth more than $5 billion.

Brandes estimates each company's "intrinsic" value, meaning what the business is worth based on its earnings, cash flow or assets. It then looks for stocks priced below that estimate. It may exit a position once the price reaches the estimate or when it sees better opportunities. There's no fixed rebalancing schedule. No single company can exceed 5% of assets at the time of purchase, but one sector, such as financials or health care, can top 20%. Portfolio turnover was 4%, which means the manager trades very little. As of June 30, 2026, the 10 largest of 63 holdings made up about 24% of assets.

The fund can also own non-U.S. companies and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which are U.S.-traded shares of foreign firms. Examples include Sanofi of France and ICON of Ireland. That brings some currency risk. Cash holdings can sometimes be large: cash was 1.84% as of June 30, 2026. Shares trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange and can trade above or below the value of the fund's holdings.

• BUSA charges 0.6% a year, versus an average of 0.34% for the similar funds below (7th of 7, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $61 in the first year and $750 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

BUSA adds a hand-picked value tilt toward banks and health care companies, which may behave differently from a broad or growth-heavy stock fund.

BUSA could add a value tilt to a broad-market portfolio, mainly through banks, drugmakers and industrial firms. Over the year to October 27, 2026, its beta was 0.46. Beta measures how much a fund moves with the market, so 0.46 means it tended to move less than half as much. But the fund launched in October 2023, so it has no record in the 2008, 2020 or 2022 downturns. Its weakest full calendar year, 2024, was still a 16% gain. Its deepest drop was 14.2%, from November 29, 2024, to April 8, 2025. It regained that ground by July 1, 2025. That record is too short to show how it might hold up for someone drawing income in a long bear market.

Income is modest: the trailing yield was 1.5% as of October 27, 2026, paid quarterly. The cost is high for a value fund at 0.60%. In the SEC's standard example, that comes to $750 over 10 years on a $10,000 investment. Past results don't predict future returns, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by closest holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports (no similar fund shares 20% or more of its holdings).