QVAL
Alpha Architect U.S. Quantitative Value ETF
EA Series Trust
Expense ratio1
0.28%
Net assets2
$490.70M
Holdings2
51
Category
US Equity
2025 return3
11.03%

Investment objective & strategy

As of Jan. 28, 2026 · prospectus

Objective. The Alpha Architect U.S. Quantitative Value ETF (the Fund) seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Strategy. The Funds Investment Strategy The Fund is actively managed by Alpha Architect, LLC, the Funds investment sub-adviser (Alpha Architect or the Sub-Adviser). Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in U.S.-listed companies that meet the Sub-Advisers definition of value (Value Companies). The Fund defines Value Companies as companies that, within the universe of the largest 1,500 U.S.-listed stocks by market capitalization, are among the 500 with the lowest enterprise multiple. Enterprise multiple is a value-centric metric: a companys total enterprise value (TEV) divided by earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). A companys TEV is the companys market capitalization plus its debt minus its cash. The Sub-Adviser employs … The Funds Investment Strategy The Fund is actively managed by Alpha Architect, LLC, the Funds investment sub-adviser (Alpha Architect or the Sub-Adviser). Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in U.S.-listed companies that meet the Sub-Advisers definition of value (Value Companies). The Fund defines Value Companies as companies that, within the universe of the largest 1,500 U.S.-listed stocks by market capitalization, are among the 500 with the lowest enterprise multiple. Enterprise multiple is a value-centric metric: a companys total enterprise value (TEV) divided by earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). A companys TEV is the companys market capitalization plus its debt minus its cash. The Sub-Adviser employs a multi-step, quantitative, rules-based methodology to identify a portfolio of approximately 50 to 200 undervalued U.S. equity securities with the potential for capital appreciation. A security is considered to be undervalued when it trades at a price below the price at which the Sub-Adviser believes it would trade if the market reflected all factors relating to the companys worth. The Sub-Adviser analyzes an initial universe of liquid stocks that principally trade on a U.S. exchange. Typically, the minimum market capitalization for the smallest-capitalization stocks in the initial universe is above $1 billion. The Sub-Adviser eliminates from the initial universe illiquid securities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and stocks of companies with less than twelve months of available financial data. The resulting universe is composed primarily of highly liquid, small-, mid- and large-cap stocks. The Sub-Adviser then employs proprietary screens, which evaluate among other things, the firms accounting practices, to eliminate firms that are potential value traps. That is, these screens eliminate firms with, in the Sub-Advisers view, negative characteristics. Those could include situations where firms appear to be experiencing financial distress or have manipulated accounting data. For example, the Sub-Adviser may seek to avoid firms that have large accruals (i.e., their net income greatly exceeds their free cash flow). Next, the Sub-Adviser employs a value-driven approach to identify the cheapest companies based on a value-centric metric known as the enterprise multiple. While enterprise multiples are the focus of the Sub-Advisers approach, the Sub-Adviser also incorporates information from other common value metrics, such as book-to-market, cash-flow to price, and earnings to price to identify the cheapest companies. Last, the Sub-Adviser employs an ensemble of quality screens, which consider metrics like current profitability, stability, and recent operational improvements, to select the top 50 to 200 stocks from the cheapest stocks. The Fund may have significant exposure to one or more of the following sectors: Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Energy, and Materials. The Sub-Adviser will reallocate the Funds portfolio on a periodic basis, generally each month.

Top holdings

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
SecurityTickerValue% of fund
UNITED AIRLINES HOLDINGS INC $10.36M 2.11%
CARNIVAL CORP $10.35M 2.11%
FIRST SOLAR INC $10.24M 2.09%
Anglogold Ashanti Plc AU $10.19M 2.08%
DECKERS OUTDOOR CORP $10.17M 2.07%
TD SYNNEX CORP $10.15M 2.07%
BRINKER INTL $10.11M 2.06%
DELTA AIR LI $10.06M 2.05%
NEWMONT CORP $10.03M 2.04%
YETI HOLDINGS INC $10.02M 2.04%
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Allocation by sector

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
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Portfolio moves

Dec 31, 2025 → Mar 31, 2026
Opened
19
Exited
19
Increased
27
Decreased
5
Unchanged
0

How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.

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Footnotes

  1. Expense ratio as of January 28, 2026, from the fund's prospectus.
  2. Net assets and holdings count as of March 31, 2026, from the fund's N-PORT filing.
  3. Total return for calendar year 2025, before tax and after fund expenses. As reported in the fund's prospectus performance bar chart.

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