Putnam Investments today became a player in the exchange-traded fund space with its launch of four actively managed equity funds, all of which mirror existing mutual fund strategies. Two of the funds focus on large-cap stocks, and the other two have a sustainability/ESG bent.
All four funds from the $197 billion Boston-based asset manager are semi-transparent (some call them non-transparent) active funds that don’t disclose their holdings on a daily basis like traditional ETFs do.
The roster includes the following:
• Putnam Sustainable Leaders ETF (PLDR) comprises companies that are established leaders in financially material sustainability issues. Its expense ratio is 0.59%.
• Putnam Sustainable Future ETF (PFUT) invests in companies that portfolio managers believe offer innovative ways to address key sustainability challenges. It charges a fee of 0.64%.
• The Putnam Focused Large Cap Growth ETF (PGRO) invests in businesses that managers consider to have a high level of growth and an above-average duration of growth. The expense ratio is 0.55%.
• Putnam Focused Large Cap Value ETF (PVAL) focuses on large companies whose stocks are priced below their long-term potential and where there may be a catalyst for positive change. Its fee is 0.55%.
The products’ semi-transparent structure is based on Fidelity’s tracking basket methodology involving a proxy portfolio of the fund’s holdings designed to closely track the daily performance of the fund without revealing the fund’s actual portfolio. It also tracks the overlap between the fund and the tracking basket on a daily basis. Fund holdings are reported monthly with a 30-day lag.