ETFs can still compete in ‘stock picker’s’ market, investor says

Exchange-traded funds can still compete in today’s “stock picker’s” market, according to a top investor.

“A lot of money is moving into active ETFs, because it provides the benefits that you have from active management [or] from stock picking … but also all the tax benefits and cost benefits that you have in an ETF,” Avantis Investors Chief Investment Officer Eduardo Repetto told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” last week.

He predicts actively managed ETFs will continue to gain traction through the second half of the year.

“We used to only have index ETFs,” Repetto noted. However, he emphasized this has changed over the past three years as the number of actively managed ETFs has grown.

Repetto’s firm is behind the Avantis U.S. Equity ETF, an actively managed portfolio of U.S. stocks. Its website shows the fund’s top holdings are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Alphabet.

As of Friday, the ETF is up 12% this year and 49% over the past three years.