What Is DFIV? Dimensional International Value ETF
Last updated September 2026
Short answer
DFIV is Dimensional International Value ETF, an ETF that tracks Actively managed, no tracked index at a 0.27% expense ratio. DFIV holds large and mid sized companies in developed markets outside the United States, chosen on price relative to book value and related measures of cheapness. Dimensional runs it by rule rather than by forecast, and the result is unusually wide: the largest single position is 2.9 percent and the ten largest come to roughly 15 percent of assets. Financials are 34 percent, energy 14 percent and materials 11 percent. The fee is 0.27 percent and the trailing yield is 2.74 percent, on about $19.9 billion in assets.
DFIV is issued by Dimensional Fund Advisors and tracks Actively managed, no tracked index. It charges a 0.27% expense ratio, holds approximately $19.9B in assets under management, yields about 2.74%, and launched in 1999.
Value outside the US is a bank and commodity portfolio
A value screen applied to the US market tends to surface healthcare, industrials and consumer staples. Applied to Europe, Japan, Canada and Australia it surfaces something else entirely. Banks, insurers, oil majors and chemical producers trade at low multiples of book value almost everywhere in the developed world, so a rules-based cheapness screen keeps finding them. DFIV's 34 percent weight in financials is not a sector view a manager took. It is the arithmetic of the screen.
The holdings bear that out. Shell is the largest position at 2.9 percent and TotalEnergies is 1.9 percent, so two oil majors sit inside the top three. Banco Santander at 2.0 percent, HSBC at 1.2 percent, Toronto-Dominion at 1.1 percent, Societe Generale at 1.1 percent and Lloyds Banking Group at 1.0 percent give five separate banks in the top ten. Toyota at 1.7 percent, BASF at 1.2 percent and Bayer at 1.0 percent fill the rest.
What follows from that mix is a fund whose day to day behaviour tracks interest rate expectations, loan losses and commodity prices more closely than it tracks global consumer demand or software spending. Someone holding DFIV alongside a US index fund is not simply adding geographic diversification. They are adding a different set of economic drivers, which is usually the point, but it should be a deliberate choice rather than a surprise.
Systematic, which is neither indexing nor stock picking
Dimensional does not track a published benchmark, which is why this page lists no index. The firm defines an eligible universe, sorts it on relative price, profitability and size, and holds the resulting portfolio with discretion over the timing of trades. That last part is the practical difference from an index fund: there is no reconstitution date on which the fund must transact, so it can wait for liquidity rather than pay for immediacy.
In every other respect it behaves like an index fund. No position is large enough to matter on its own. The top ten holdings together are about 15 percent of assets, which means roughly 85 percent of the fund sits in names too small to be listed here. A cap-weighted international index concentrates far more heavily at the top. If a single company in DFIV cut its dividend or lost a lawsuit, the fund would barely register it.
The 0.27 percent fee sits between the two worlds it borrows from. It is several times what a plain cap-weighted international index fund charges and a fraction of what a traditional international value manager charges. Whether that is worth paying depends entirely on whether someone wants the value tilt at all, because the fee difference is small next to the difference between owning the cheap half of the market and owning all of it.
Where DFIV is the wrong tool
It is not international market exposure. It is one deliberate half of it. A portfolio that uses DFIV as its only non-US holding is short the international growth companies that a total market fund would carry, and it will behave differently from the international market in both directions. Pairing it with a broad developed-market fund, or holding a smaller allocation to it, are both reasonable ways to keep the tilt without letting it define the whole sleeve.
The disclosed holdings are all developed-market companies, so Taiwan, Korea, India, Brazil and China are not represented here. Anyone who wants emerging markets needs a separate fund for them. Currency is unhedged, which means the return in dollars includes the movement of the euro, yen, pound and Canadian dollar. In a strong dollar period that is a headwind independent of how the underlying companies perform.
The 2.74 percent trailing yield is a byproduct of owning cheap, mature, high-payout companies rather than a design target. It is not managed, not guaranteed, and it will drift as the portfolio turns over. Someone whose actual requirement is a predictable income stream is better served by a fund built for that job, where the distribution policy is part of the product rather than a side effect of the screen.
DFIV holdings: top 10
Approximate weights as of August 2026. Each ticker links to its individual stock guide in Walnut.
How do I invest in DFIV?
There are three common ways to get DFIV exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) of DFIV directly at any major broker that lists it. Hold it as a core position and layer more concentrated ideas on top. Or build it into a thematic portfolio in Walnut, so DFIV sits alongside other holdings that express the same thesis, with target weights you can rebalance toward. DFIV trades like a stock during market hours, so you buy it the same way you would any listed share.
New to buying funds? See how to buy an ETF, step by step.
Is DFIV a good buy?
Whether DFIV is a good buy depends less on any single call and more on your time horizon and what you already hold: it tracks Actively managed, no tracked index, so the real question is whether you want that exposure in your mix and at what weight. We walk through valuation, concentration, and what would have to be true for it to outperform from here in is DFIV a buy?
The bottom line on DFIV
DFIV gives you Actively managed, no tracked index exposure in one ticker at a 0.27% expense ratio. Most investors use it as a core holding and layer more concentrated thematic portfolios on top.
More on DFIV
Whether DFIV is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, concentration, and what would have to be true for it to outperform from here in is DFIV a buy?
DFIV yields 2.74% as of August 2026, paid by passing through the dividends of its underlying holdings. For the payout schedule, history, and how the distributions are taxed, see DFIV dividend: yield and schedule.
New to funds like DFIV? Start with what an ETF is, then how to buy an ETF, or browse the full guide to ETF investing.
Wondering how DFIV fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in DFIV with AI
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FAQ
What does DFIV actually hold?
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Large and mid sized companies in developed markets outside the United States, filtered toward the cheaper end on price to book and related measures. The top ten positions are Shell, Banco Santander, TotalEnergies, Toyota, HSBC, BASF, Toronto-Dominion, Societe Generale, Bayer and Lloyds Banking Group, and together they come to about 15 percent of the fund. The remainder sits in hundreds of smaller positions across Europe, Japan, Canada and Australia.
Is DFIV an index fund?
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No. Dimensional does not track a published benchmark. The portfolio is built from rules covering relative price, profitability and company size, but the firm retains discretion over when it trades, so there is no fixed reconstitution date forcing transactions. The practical effect is a portfolio that looks index-like in its breadth and diversification while avoiding the crowded trading days that come with tracking a public index.
Why are more than a third of the assets in financials?
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Because that is what a cheapness screen finds outside the United States. European and Japanese banks, Canadian banks and global insurers routinely trade at low multiples of book value, so any systematic value process keeps selecting them. The 34 percent financials weight is an output of the method rather than a call on interest rates. It does mean the fund is sensitive to rate expectations and credit conditions.
Does DFIV include emerging markets?
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The disclosed top holdings are all developed-market companies from Europe, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom, and the fund is categorised as foreign large value rather than global or emerging. Someone who wants exposure to Taiwan, Korea, India, China or Brazil needs a separate emerging markets fund. Dimensional runs distinct emerging markets strategies for that purpose, so the two are usually held side by side rather than in one ticker.
Is the currency exposure hedged?
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No. Returns in US dollars include the movement of the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar and the other currencies the underlying companies report in. That cuts both ways: a falling dollar adds to the dollar return of the same shares, and a rising dollar subtracts from it. Over short periods the currency component can be larger than the difference between one equity fund and another.
Why is the inception date listed as 1999?
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That date is older than most of the ETF industry. Dimensional converted several long-running mutual funds into ETFs, and the inception dates carried over from those predecessor vehicles rather than from the day the ETF began trading. It is worth reading the date as the age of the strategy rather than the age of the listing, particularly when comparing track records with funds that launched directly as ETFs.
How is DFIV different from a broad international index fund?
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A broad fund holds the whole developed international market weighted by size, so it carries both the cheap companies and the expensive ones. DFIV holds only the cheaper end and weights it by rule, which produces the heavy financials, energy and materials exposure visible here. The two funds overlap on many names but diverge sharply on sector shares, and DFIV charges 0.27 percent against the lower fees typical of plain index products.
What is the 2.74 percent yield made of?
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Ordinary dividends from mature companies. Value screens select firms that return a large share of earnings to shareholders, and European and Japanese payout conventions differ from US practice, with some companies paying twice a year in variable amounts. The result is a lumpier distribution schedule than a US dividend fund. Foreign withholding tax is deducted at source in many markets, some of which may be recoverable through a foreign tax credit.
What is DFIV's expense ratio?
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DFIV has an expense ratio of 0.27% per year as of August 2026, charged by Dimensional Fund Advisors and deducted from the fund's value rather than billed to you separately. On a $10,000 position that is roughly $27 a year. Fees compound over time, so on a long-term holding the expense ratio is one of the few return drivers you control. It is worth comparing against other funds that track Actively managed, no tracked index before you choose.
How do I compare DFIV to similar ETFs?
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Put a few fields side by side: the expense ratio (fees compound over decades), the index or strategy it tracks, the top holdings and how much they overlap with what you already own, the dividend yield, and the AUM, liquidity, and bid-ask spread that affect trading costs. For index funds, tracking error (how closely it follows its index) and tax efficiency matter too. DFIV's figures are above; the full method is in Walnut's guide on how to compare ETFs.
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Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Holdings weights and fund statistics on this page are approximations stamped to August 2026; verify current figures against Dimensional Fund Advisors's fund page or your broker before investing.