3 Value ETFs to Consider as Growth Stocks Lag Behind

Key Points

• Value stocks have significantly outperformed growth stocks in 2026.
• Broad-based value ETFs like FVAL, IWD, and MDYV offer diversified ways to tilt portfolios toward value stocks without picking individual companies.
• IWD leads with over 18% YTD returns and nearly $81 billion in assets, while MDYV's mid-cap focus has returned about 12.5% YTD.

For factor investors, there's a massive gap between growth and value stocks that appears to only be widening. As of July 24, 2026, the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF, which tracks the Russell 1000 Value Index, had returned 18.88% year-to-date (YTD), while the iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF was down 0.36%.

There are multiple potential reasons for this divergence. For starters, the ongoing Iran conflict and its resulting energy and commodity shocks may help value sectors more than growth sectors. In addition, the current interest rate environment is likely less favorable to growth stocks. Add to those a recent repricing of mega-cap AI stocks, and investors have even more pressure to diversify into value names.

One of the easiest ways to tilt a portfolio toward value as a category is with a broad-based value exchange-traded fund (ETF). This takes the trouble of identifying individual companies out of the equation and allows investors to access a mix of value stocks while controlling for the overall weight of this factor in a broader portfolio.

FVAL: Value Exposure With a Heavy Technology Tilt

Investors looking to lean toward value stocks while maintaining a strong focus on the information technology sector might consider the Fidelity Value Factor ETF NYSEARCA: FVAL.

This fund is priced competitively relative to other value factor funds at 0.15% in annual fees, and it skews fairly heavily toward IT names, which represent about a third of the basket.

FVAL is dominated by mega-cap firms, although large- and mid-cap names also figure fairly prominently. Still, investors should be aware that this fund will provide ample exposure to major tech names like NVIDIA Corp. NASDAQ: NVDA and Apple Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL, which happen to be its two largest holdings.

Digging deeper into FVAL's portfolio of 129 companies, though, investors will also find smaller and less prominent names, all with low prices compared to their strong fundamentals. The portfolio is fairly diversified, but investors will likely find it does not provide broad enough exposure to U.S. equities to serve as the sole entry point into the market. Still, with a dividend yield just shy of 1.6% and its YTD return of 10.25% beating the S&P's 9.6%, FVAL can be a nice way to lean in.

IWD: Broad, Core Exposure to Large-Cap Value Stocks

For a more generalized approach to value names, the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF NYSEARCA: IWD tracks the Russell 1000 Value Index, meaning that it will offer broad exposure to primarily large-cap stocks in this category.

With 874 holdings, IWD's basket is significantly more varied than FVAL's. Plus, its expense ratio is just four basis points higher at 0.19%.

IWD's status as a core value fund is evident from its nearly $81 billion in managed assets and a one-month average trading volume of over 2.84 million shares.

Investors see this fund as a great way to build diversification, and its sizable list of names means it could be a core holding in some portfolios. Still, a handful of major names do have somewhat outsized allocations, but the largest single positions are only about 6% each.

IWD's dividend yield of 1.4% is just slightly behind FVAL's, but this ETF has solidly outperformed its slightly cheaper rival this year, based on returns of more than 18% YTD.

MDYV: Mid-Cap Exposure With Less Single-Stock Concentration

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offers another spin on the value ETF approach thanks to its focus on mid-cap names, which may have stronger potential returns than larger names in exchange for stability.

Due to its niche focus, MDYV is likely best employed as a means of adding a mid-cap value tilt, rather than as a core holding.

Among the fund's roughly 300 holdings, MDYV provides a nice balance between financial, industrials, consumer discretionary, and other sectors.

No single position represents more than about 1.25% of the portfolio, so any risk associated with these smaller, lesser-known value stocks is mitigated to some degree thanks to diversification and weighting.

MDYV is more of a specialized fund than IWD, and it has lower assets and trading volumes as a result, although liquidity should still be sufficient for most investors.

The fund still provides a dividend yield—and, at 1.66%, a surprisingly robust one at that. The mid-cap segment has fared well so far this year, and MDYV has returned around12.5% YTD, beating out both the broader market and FVAL above.

Given MDYV's expense ratio of 0.15%, it is a relatively inexpensive way to capture a potentially fast-growing corner of the value space.