Moativated Investing – A History of Outperformance

Moativated Investing – A History of Outperformance. Long-term outperformance defines the track record of Morningstar’s success in identifying quality ”moat” companies with sustainable competitive advantages that are also trading at attractive valuations. Since its live inception in 2007, the Morningstar® Wide Moat Focus IndexSM has outperformed the S&P 500® Index by more than four percentage points each year, as shown in the chart below.

Morningstar’s Economic Moat Rating

Morningstar first began rating companies in 2002 according to the strength and longevity of their competitive advantages. Nearly fifteen years later, Morningstar’s equity research process remains rooted in the core belief that quality companies positioned to maintain one or more competitive advantages well into the future are best positioned for long-term success. The quality of these companies is reflected in Morningstar’s Economic Moat Rating.

Morningstar’s unique Economic Moat Rating system helps investors identify how likely a company is to keep competitors at bay for an extended period. The highest rating, a wide economic moat, signifies Morningstar’s belief that the company can sustain its competitive advantage for at least 20 years into the future, which is no small feat in today’s ultra-competitive environment.

Fair Value Represents A Company’s Long-Term Intrinsic Value

Another key component to Morningstar’s moat-investing equity research approach is its valuation process. Morningstar equity analysts assign a fair value estimate to each company based on how much cash it believes the company may generate in the future. The fair value represents a company’s long-term intrinsic value. Of course, stocks may trade above or below the company’s underlying fair value. The key is to identify those companies that are attractively priced at the time of investment.

VanEck VectorsTM Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (MOAT) is the only U.S. ETF that seeks to track the Morningstar® Wide Moat Focus IndexSM (the ”Index”), a benchmark that combines Morningstar’s measure of quality with their valuation framework. The Index’s approach to identifying U.S. companies with wide economic moats that are attractively priced has resulted in long-term outperformance versus the broader U.S. equity market, and provided a unique way for investors to invest in quality companies.

U.S. Moat Investing Has Provided a Long-Term Performance Advantage

Cumulative Index Returns 2/14/2007 to 9/30/2016

(click to enlarge) Source: Morningstar; FactSet.

Index performance is not representative of Fund performance. Fund performance current to the most recent month-end can be found at www.vaneck.com/moat. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Important Disclosures

Fair value estimate: The Morningstar analyst’s estimate of what a stock is worth.

The Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index consists of U.S. companies identified as having sustainable, competitive advantages and whose stocks are the most attractively priced, according to Morningstar.