Cambria Micro and SmallCap Shareholder Yield ETF

Cambria Micro and SmallCap Shareholder Yield ETF (MYLD) is an actively managed fund holding 100 to 300 U.S. companies worth $100 million to $5 billion that rank high for returning cash to shareholders through dividends, share buybacks and debt paydowns. A computer model also favors cheap stocks and weights them roughly equally, so no single name dominates. The trade-off is cost: its 0.62% expense ratio tops the 0.44% average of six similar funds.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, MYLD returned +30.8%, 2nd of 7 among similar funds.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2025 (+10.4%); its best was 2025 (+10.4%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 28.2% (Nov 25, 2024 to Apr 8, 2025), recovered by Dec 10, 2025.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 100 securities; the ten largest made up 12.11% of assets.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors added a net $1.8M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -0.36%, +6.32%, +3.63%.

MYLD is actively managed rather than tied to an index. Cambria Investment Management picks stocks with its own quantitative model, a rules-based computer screen. At least 80% of net assets go into U.S. micro- and small-cap stocks, which Cambria defines as companies with a market value of $100 million to $5 billion. The model looks for high "shareholder yield": the cash a company returns through dividends, share buybacks (repurchasing its own stock, which shrinks the share count) and paying down debt.

At least once a quarter, the model ranks companies by dividends and net buybacks and keeps the top 20%. It then scores that group on debt paydowns and valuation measures such as price-to-earnings, price-to-book, price-to-sales, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA, which compares a company's total value with its operating earnings. The 100 to 300 highest scorers make the cut. Each is aimed at an equal weight rather than being sized by company value.

Weights drift between quarterly updates. Cambria may trade sooner after market moves or drop a stock it sees as overvalued. Turnover, the share of holdings replaced over a year, was 55% per the August 2026 prospectus. As of July 31, 2026, the fund held 100 stocks and no derivatives. ManpowerGroup was the largest at 1.5%, and the top 10 made up 12.1%.

• MYLD charges 0.62% a year, versus an average of 0.44% for the similar funds below (6th of 7, cheapest first).
• Of that, 0.59% is the management fee; the rest covers other fund expenses.
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $63 in the first year and $774 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It covers a narrow slice of the market, tiny and small U.S. companies, has under three years of history and fell 28.2% in its worst stretch, so it fits a side position better than a foundation.

MYLD could add a slice of tiny and small U.S. companies that return cash to shareholders. It launched in January 2024, so it has no record through the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 COVID crash or the 2022 bear market. Its only full calendar year, 2025, returned 10.44%, which hides a 28.2% fall from November 25, 2024, to April 8, 2025. It took about eight months from that low to regain its old high, on December 10, 2025. Anyone forced to cash out near the bottom would have locked in a steep loss.

Income is modest: a 2.28% yield over the 12 months to October 27, 2026, paid quarterly. Its 0.62% expense ratio comes to $63 in the first year on $10,000 in the SEC's standard example. Past results don't predict future ones, 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).