SAN ANTONIO–July 10, 2020–U.S. Global Investors, Inc. (Nasdaq: GROW) (“the Company”), a boutique registered investment advisory firm specializing in gold and precious metals, natural resources and emerging markets, is pleased to announce that its U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF (GOAU) surpassed $100 million in net assets for the first time since its debut in June 2017. The smart-beta 2.0 ETF ended the session on July 8 with $100.5 million in assets under management (AUM). What’s more, GOAU’s share price closed at a new record high for the fourth consecutive trading session on July 8, ending at $22.35.
“This milestone is an important one,” says Frank Holmes, the Company’s CEO and chief investment officer. “Many broker-dealers require ETFs to meet a minimum threshold in AUM and daily trading volume before they can be made available to investors. Exceeding $100 million in AUM may help GOAU quality for greater distribution and attract additional assets.”
The achievement comes just a month after the Company’s airlines ETF, the U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS), crossed above $1 billion in AUM as value investors piled into securities impacted by coronavirus-related travel restrictions. Between March 3 and June 10, JETS saw a remarkable 70 straight trading days of positive daily inflows. That’s thanks in large part to tactical investors anticipating a rebound and millennial investors using Robinhood, many of whom began to make bets on the airline industry in early March and April before Warren Buffett’s May 2 announcement that he had dumped all of his airline stocks. In the quarter ended June 30, JETS’ AUM grew 297 percent, from $302.0 million to $1.20 billion.
“GOAU is doing precisely what we designed it to do, and we’re very pleased to see its AUM exceed $100 million,” Mr. Holmes says. “We spent about 8,000 hours developing the ETF, using our decades of gold stock investing expertise as active gold fund managers. We analyzed different methodologies and portfolio structures and looked at dozens of factors one-by-one. It’s truly been a labor of love, and I’m thrilled to see that investors are acknowledging that hard work.
“Both GOAU and JETS are dynamic, smart-beta 2.0 ETFs,” Mr. Holmes continues. “GOAU has a unique portfolio structure, 30 percent of which is based on using mean reversion to rebalance the three largest gold royalty names—Franco-Nevada, Wheaton Precious Metals and Royal Gold. The other 70 percent is based on using rules-based stock-picking factors to select 25 high-quality gold stocks every quarter. These 25 names are layered based on market cap and attractiveness using our robust financial factors. We are focused on momentum in revenue, free cash flow (FCF) and high-gross margins on a per-share basis. In other words, whenever a company dilutes these value factors on a per-share basis, they’re kicked out of the ETF.”
To see GOAU’s top 10 holdings, click here.
The Company is proud to offer GOAU on the following platforms: Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, BNY Pershing, Stifel, Oppenheimer, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Janney, LPL Financial, Raymond James, Advisor Group, Commonwealth Financial Network, Kestra Financial and Robinhood.
To learn more about GOAU, click here.
To learn more about JETS, click here.
About U.S. Global Investors, Inc.
The story of U.S. Global Investors goes back more than 50 years when it began as an investment club. Today, U.S. Global Investors, Inc. (www.usfunds.com) is a registered investment adviser that focuses on niche markets around the world. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, the Company provides money management and other services to U.S. Global Investors Funds and U.S. Global ETFs.
Forward-Looking Statements and Disclosure
Please consider carefully a fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. For this and other important information, obtain a statutory and summary prospectus by visiting www.usglobaletfs.com. Read it carefully before investing.
Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Shares of any ETF are bought and sold at market price (not NAV), may trade at a discount or premium to NAV and are not individually redeemed from the fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns. Because the fund concentrates its investments in specific industries, the fund may be subject to greater risks and fluctuations than a portfolio representing a broader range of industries. The fund is non-diversified, meaning it may concentrate more of its assets in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund. The fund invests in foreign securities which involve greater volatility and political, economic and currency risks and differences in accounting methods. These risks are greater for investments in emerging markets. The fund may invest in the securities of smaller-capitalization companies, which may be more volatile than funds that invest in larger, more established companies. The performance of the fund may diverge from that of the index. Because the fund may employ a representative sampling strategy and may also invest in securities that are not included in the index, the fund may experience tracking error to a greater extent than a fund that seeks to replicate an index. The fund is not actively managed and may be affected by a general decline in market segments related to the index. Airline companies may be adversely affected by a downturn in economic conditions that can result in decreased demand for air travel and may also be significantly affected by changes in fuel prices, labor relations and insurance costs.
Smart beta refers to a type of exchange-traded fund (ETF) that uses a rules-based system for selecting investments to be included in the fund portfolio. Free cash flow (FCF) represents the cash a company generates after accounting for cash outflows to support operations and maintain its capital assets. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting actions to control or slow the spread has had a significant detrimental effect on the global and domestic economies, financial markets and industries, including airlines. U.S. Global Investors continues to monitor the impact of COVID-19, but it is too early to determine the full impact this virus may have on commercial aviation. Should this emerging macro-economic risk continue for an extended period, there could be an adverse material financial impact to the U.S. Global Jets ETF.
Distributed by Quasar Distributors, LLC. U.S. Global Investors is the investment adviser to JETS.
All opinions expressed and data provided are subject to change without notice. Opinions are not guaranteed and should not be considered investment advice.