Astoria’s ROE ETF marks three years with $268M in assets

Astoria Investment Management says its US Equal Weight Quality Kings ETF has reached its third anniversary with $268.28 million in assets and a 20.25% annualized NAV return since launch. The firm is pitching ROE as an alternative to traditional equal-weight funds that can drift into unintended sector bets and miss mega-cap concentration risk.

Why it matters: - ROE is designed to give investors broad U.S. equity exposure while reducing the concentration risk common in mega-cap-heavy benchmarks. - The ETF also aims to avoid the unintended sector tilts that can come with traditional equal-weight strategies. - Its three-year track record gives Astoria a real-world example of its quality-focused approach in a market crowded with index-based products.

What happened: - Astoria Investment Management marked the three-year anniversary of the Astoria US Equal Weight Quality Kings ETF, ticker ROE, on July 31, 2026. - The actively managed ETF invests in 100 high-quality U.S. large-cap and mid-cap stocks in an equally weighted, sector-optimized portfolio. - ROE launched on July 31, 2023.

The details: - The fund had $268.28 million in assets under management as of July 31, 2026. - ROE has produced a 20.25% annualized NAV return since inception. - The fund returned 31.81% over the trailing one-year period as of July 31, 2026. - By comparison, the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index returned 11.47% annualized since inception and 17.06% over the trailing year over the same periods. - That put ROE ahead of the benchmark by 8.78 percentage points since inception and 14.75 percentage points over the trailing year. - The strategy screens stocks using sector-relative quality metrics, with emphasis on return on equity, return on invested capital, valuation, dividend potential and growth. - ROE selects 100 names and rebalances them equally weighted each quarter. - Sector exposures are anchored to the broad U.S. equity market. - Astoria said quality has been the keystone of its core equity exposure in ETF model portfolios since the firm was founded in 2017. - The fund’s expense ratio is 0.49%. - Standardized performance as of July 31, 2026 showed NAV returns of 7.51% over 3 months, 16.06% over 6 months and 20.13% year to date. - Market-price performance as of July 31, 2026 showed returns of 7.55% over 3 months, 16.21% over 6 months and 20.34% year to date.

Between the lines: - The launch anniversary gives Astoria a chance to argue that equal weight and quality can work together without the sector distortions often seen in plain equal-weight indexes. - The fund’s outperformance versus the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index strengthens that case, though past performance does not guarantee future results. - John Davi said ROE was built to deliver core U.S. equity exposure without mega-cap concentration risk while using quality stock selection to drive differentiation. - Nicholas Cerbone said ROE avoids the unintended sector tilts that traditional equal-weight indices carry by anchoring sector weights to the broad market. - The performance figures are past returns and can move lower or higher as the fund’s holdings fluctuate.

What’s next: - Investors seeking current month-end performance can call 215.330.4476 or visit Astoria’s ETF site. - Astoria continues to position quality-based stock selection as the core of its ETF model portfolios. - The firm says the fund is distributed by PINE Distributors LLC, with ETF Architect as investment advisor and Astoria Portfolio Advisors as sub-adviser.

The bottom line: - After three years, ROE has become Astoria’s proof point for a quality-focused, equal-weight strategy aimed at sidestepping mega-cap concentration and noisy sector bets.