Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF

Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF (SYLD) is an actively managed fund. It holds about 100 U.S. stocks chosen by a computer model for "shareholder yield", meaning the cash a company returns through dividends, share buybacks and paying down debt, combined with low valuations. It aims to give each stock a roughly equal weight, so no single company dominates. Its 0.59% expense ratio is higher than most similar funds.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, SYLD returned +26.2%, 4th of 7 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +9.0% and its 10-year +13.7%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 44.7% and regained its old high 7.7 months after the low.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2018 (-13.5%); its best was 2021 (+48.5%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 45.4% (Jan 16, 2020 to Mar 23, 2020), recovered by Nov 16, 2020.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 98 securities; the ten largest made up 12.59% of assets, and 2.12% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $7.4M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -1.98%, +1.69%, +5.28%.

SYLD does not track an index. Cambria Investment Management runs it with its own quantitative model, a rules-based computer screen. The fund keeps at least 80% of its net assets in stocks of U.S.-based, publicly listed companies with high shareholder yield. Cambria defines that as the total cash a company returns to investors through dividends, share buybacks and debt paydowns. A buyback is when a company purchases its own shares, which leaves fewer shares for the remaining owners.

The model first keeps the top 20% of U.S. companies ranked by dividends plus net buybacks. It then factors in debt paydowns and scores the remaining stocks on value 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 stocks with the strongest combined scores go into the portfolio. Cambria aims to weight them equally, though weights drift as prices move.

Cambria adjusts holdings periodically to match the model, and portfolio turnover was 64% in the prospectus filed August 28, 2026. As of July 31, 2026, the fund held 98 stocks, and its 10 largest positions made up only 12.59% of assets. The largest were ManpowerGroup, HF Sinclair, Tenet Healthcare, PayPal and Valero Energy. As of August 3, 2026, the fund was heavily exposed to the consumer discretionary and financials sectors.

• SYLD charges 0.59% a year, versus an average of 0.4% for the similar funds below (6th of 7, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $60 in the first year and $738 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

Its equally weighted, value-focused mix of about 100 U.S. stocks behaves differently from market-cap-weighted index funds dominated by the largest companies.

SYLD could add a value-tilted slice of U.S. stocks to a portfolio built mostly on large-company index funds. Its downturns have been sharp, though. It fell 44.7% in the 2020 COVID crash and did not recover until November 13, 2020, about 7.7 months later. In 2022 it dropped 20% from peak to trough and had recovered by January 31, 2023. Its worst calendar year was 2018, at -13.36%. The fund launched in 2013, so it has no record from 2008. A retiree selling shares to cover spending in a crash like 2020 would have been selling near the lows. Income is modest: the trailing 12-month yield was 1.8% as of October 27, 2026, paid quarterly. The 0.59% expense ratio is above the 0.40% average of similar funds. Past results don't predict the future, 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).