11/29/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/29/2024 08:34
WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond Fund - QHY (Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.)
Summary Prospectus - November 29, 2024
Before you invest in the Fund, as defined below, you may want to review the Fund's prospectus and statement of additional information ("SAI"), which contain more information about the Fund and the risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund's current prospectus and SAI are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus. You can find the Fund's prospectus and SAI, reports to shareholders, as well as other information about the Fund, online at www.wisdomtree.com/investments/resource-library/prospectus-regulatory-reports. You may also obtain this information at no charge by calling 1-866-909-9473 or by sending an e-mail request to [email protected].
Investment Objective
The WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (the "Fund") seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond Index (the "Index").
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund's average net assets.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) | None |
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | |
Management Fees | 0.38% |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | None |
Other Expenses | 0.00% |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.38% |
Example
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem or hold all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$ 39 | $ 122 | $ 213 | $ 480 |
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in the Fund's Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the example, affect the Fund's performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 23% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund's capital shares.
Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund
The Fund employs a "passive management" - or indexing - investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment
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objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund's total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in constituent securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such constituent securities.
WisdomTree, Inc. ("WisdomTree"), the Index Provider and parent company of WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. ("WisdomTree Asset Management" or the "Adviser"), designed the Index to capture the performance of selected issuers in the U.S. non-investment-grade corporate bond ("junk bond") market with favorable fundamental and income characteristics. The Index employs a multi-step selection process to seek to identify bonds with favorable fundamentals and then tilts to those bonds with favorable risk-adjusted income characteristics.
The Index is comprised of U.S. dollar-denominated corporate bonds of public issuers domiciled in the United States. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, bonds must meet the following key criteria: (i) pay fixed-rate coupons; (ii) have at least $500 million in par amount outstanding; (iii) have a remaining maturity of at least one year; and (iv) have a non-investment grade rating by Standard & Poor's or Moody's (i.e., below BBB- or Baa3, respectively). In addition, a bond cannot be in default or otherwise be in distress (e.g., the bond must be rated above C).
Once the Index universe is defined, each bond is assigned a factor score based on fundamental metrics that distinguish cash flow characteristics (i.e., free cash flow) and momentum metrics based on the relative equity market performance of the bond's issuer. The Index selects bonds principally based on their fundamental metrics. However, a bond issued by a company with favorable fundamental metrics, but exhibiting significant negative momentum metrics would be excluded from the Index, while a bond with weaker fundamental metrics but showcasing positive momentum metrics would be included in the Index. Bonds are assigned to one of five sectors (i.e., industrial, financial, utility, consumer, or energy) and then assessed for liquidity against public bonds within their sector. Bonds deemed to be among the 5% least liquid are excluded from consideration.
Each remaining bond is then assigned an income tilt score. A bond's tilt score reflects, among other factors, its probability of default and recovery relative to the other bonds in its sector and the yield spread between the bond and U.S. Treasuries. Income tilt scores are then used to determine a bond's weight in the Index relative to its market value, with greater weight allocated to those bonds receiving higher income tilt scores. The Fund's exposure to any single bond issuer and any single bond is capped at the time of rebalance at 2% and 0.50%, respectively, with any excess exposure allocated across the remaining bonds on a pro rata basis. The Index is rebalanced semi-annually. During the intra-rebalance period, the Index may include constituents that no longer meet the Index's eligibility criteria as described above. Under certain circumstances, such as in response to a change in a bond's credit rating that causes it to no longer meet the Index eligibility criteria, the Index Provider may remove constituents from the Index intra-rebalance but on a delayed-basis (e.g., at the end of the month in which the credit rating changed).
The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in investments not included in the Index, including repurchase agreements and/or derivatives. Derivative investments may include interest rate futures, swaps, and forward contracts.
To the extent the Index's constituents are concentrated (i.e., more than 25% of constituents) in a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will seek to concentrate its investments in such industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent as the Index.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund's investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor's understanding of the Fund's risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a "principal risk" of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value per share ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its investment objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund's Prospectus titled "Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds" and "Additional Non-Principal Risk Information."
■ | High Yield Securities Risk. Higher yielding, high risk debt securities, sometimes referred to as junk bonds, may present additional risk because these securities may be less liquid and present more credit risk than investment grade bonds. The price of high yield securities tends to be more susceptible to issuer-specific operating results |
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and outlook and to real or perceived adverse economic and competitive industry conditions. High yield securities may be regarded as predominantly speculative with respect to the issuer's continuing ability to meet principal and interest payments. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer's creditworthiness. Interest rates may change suddenly or unexpectedly and have unpredictable impacts on the financial markets and the Fund's investments. To the extent that the Fund holds fixed income securities with longer durations, such securities generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. |
■ | Issuer Credit Risk. The financial condition of an issuer of a debt security or other instrument may cause such issuer to default, become unable to pay interest or principal due or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or cause such issuer to be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund's portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund's NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund's shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund's daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund's shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund's underlying portfolio holdings. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund's operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund's third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as an interest rate, a currency, or a commodity. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use forward contracts, swaps, and interest rate futures to implement its principal investment strategies. A forward contract is an agreement to buy or sell a specific security or instrument, such as currencies or commodities, on a future date at a price set at the time of contract. Forward contracts settle at the end of the agreement and are traded in the over-the-counter market. As a result, forward contracts are subject to counterparty credit risk, including that a counterparty may be unwilling or unable to meet its contractual obligations. A swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange the cash flows or values of one specified asset for another. The risks of swaps include, but are not limited to, counterparty credit risk and the potential to increase or decrease the overall volatility of the Fund's investments and its share price. An interest rate futures contract is an exchange-traded contract that provides for the future purchase of an interest-bearing asset at a specified price set at the time of contract. Interest rate futures contracts are subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the movements in the price of the futures contract and the underlying interest rates. |
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■ | Geopolitical Risk. The United States has and may continue to experience security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations that lead to increased short-term market volatility and have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund's investments. |
■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index Provider has the right to make adjustments to the composition and/or operation of the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index Provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index Provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of a continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. |
■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund's performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of the Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by the Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with the Index. |
■ | Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund. |
■ | Repurchase Agreement Risk. A repurchase agreement is a transaction in which the Fund purchases securities or other obligations from a bank or securities dealer and simultaneously commits to resell them to a counterparty at an agreed-upon date or upon demand and at a price reflecting a market rate of interest unrelated to the coupon rate or maturity of the purchased obligations. Investments in repurchase agreements are subject to counterparty risk. In the event of the insolvency of the counterparty to a repurchase agreement, recovery of the repurchase price owed to the Fund may be delayed. Investments in repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk with respect to the collateral securing the repurchase agreements. Investments in repurchase agreements also may be subject to the risk that the market value of the underlying obligations may decline prior to the expiration of the repurchase agreement term. |
Fund Performance
Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart below shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund's average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund's performance compares to that of the Index and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, a broad-based securities market index intended to represent the overall domestic bond market, as required by newly adopted regulations applicable to the Fund. Performance is also shown for the ICE BofA Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Index, which more closely represents the investment exposure sought by the Fund. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses, or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund's past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund's website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.
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The Fund's year-to-date total return as of September 30, 2024 was 6.09%.
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
Highest Return | 8.15% | 1Q/2019 |
Lowest Return | (10.41)% | 1Q/2020 |
After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.
Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2023
WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years |
Since Inception April 27, 2016 |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | 10.80% | 4.49% | 4.36% |
Return After Taxes on Distributions | 7.99% | 2.30% | 2.02% |
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | 6.28% | 2.51% | 2.31% |
WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | 11.94% | 4.88% | 5.03% |
ICE BofA Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | 13.44% | 5.21% | 5.31% |
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | 5.53% | 1.10% | 1.11% |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Voya Investment Management Co. LLC ("Voya IM") serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by Voya IM's Leveraged Credit team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund's portfolio are identified below.
Randall Parrish, CFA, Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in April 2016.
Mohamed Basma, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Leveraged Credit, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2023.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed for trading on a national securities exchange, currently Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc., and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market
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through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the "bid/ask spread"). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund's website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares ("Creation Units"), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an "Intermediary"), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary's website for more information.
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WIS-QHY-SUM-1124