CBJ celebrates 40 Under 40 honorees during sold-out event at The Westin Charlotte (PHOTOS)
Segun Akinyemi, Microsoft Corp., talks with friends at the 2025 40 Under 40 Awards program on May 8 at The Westin Charlotte.
Melissa Key/CBJ
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11-07-2025
- Yahoo
Is Franklin U.S. Equity Index ETF (USPX) a Strong ETF Right Now?
A smart beta exchange traded fund, the Franklin U.S. Equity Index ETF (USPX) debuted on 06/01/2016, and offers broad exposure to the Style Box - All Cap Blend category of the market. The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market. A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns. But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market. Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance. This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results. The fund is sponsored by Franklin Templeton Investments. It has amassed assets over $1.28 billion, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Blend. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the MORNINGSTAR US TARGET MARKET EXPOSURE ID. The Morningstar US Target Market Exposure Index targets large and mid-capitalization U.S. stocks representing the top 85% of the U.S. equity market by float-adjusted market capitalization. Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.03% for this ETF, which makes it one of the least expensive products in the space. The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.16%. Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings. This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 33.3% of the portfolio. Financials and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three. When you look at individual holdings, Microsoft Corp (MSFT) accounts for about 6.74% of the fund's total assets, followed by Nvidia Corp (NVDA) and Apple Inc (AAPL). Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 34.89% of USPX's total assets under management. The ETF has gained about 7.63% so far this year and is up about 13.15% in the last one year (as of 07/11/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $43.36 and $55.00 USPX has a beta of 0.90 and standard deviation of 17.62% for the trailing three-year period. With about 563 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk . Franklin U.S. Equity Index ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - All Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT) tracks S&P Total Market Index and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) tracks CRSP US Total Market Index. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF has $72.02 billion in assets, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has $506.04 billion. ITOT has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VTI changes 0.03%. Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - All Cap Blend To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Franklin U.S. Equity Index ETF (USPX): ETF Research Reports This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Journals
10-07-2025
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Charlotte's new med school ready for inaugural class (PHOTOS)
Expand Charlotte-based Atrium Health delivered The Pearl, a $1.5 billion, 700,000-square-foot innovation district in midtown last month. Melissa Key/CBJ
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Yahoo
Microsoft touts $500M in AI savings while slashing jobs
(Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is keen to show employees how much AI is transforming its own workplace, even as the company terminates thousands of personnel. During a presentation this week, Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff said artificial intelligence tools are boosting productivity in everything from sales and customer service to software engineering, according to a person familiar with his remarks. Althoff said AI saved Microsoft more than $500 million last year in its call centers alone and increased both employee and customer satisfaction, according to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter. The company is also starting to use AI to handle interactions with smaller customers, Althoff said. This effort is nascent, but already generating tens of millions of dollars, he said. Microsoft declined to comment. Tech executives have been increasingly vocal about the potential for AI to automate labor currently performed by humans. Salesforce Inc. has said 30% of internal work at the company is being handled by AI, allowing it to reduce hiring for some roles. Executives at Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have said significant chunks of code are now being written with AI. At Microsoft, AI generated 35% of the code for new products, accelerating launch times, Althoff said. The company's GitHub Copilot is a leader in the market for AI coding tools and has 15 million users, Microsoft said in April. AI implementation has fueled replacement anxiety for many workers, particularly in the tech industry. Microsoft has announced cuts of about 15,000 employees this year, with a wave of layoffs last week targeting customer-facing roles like sales. Althoff stressed to employees that AI could make them more effective as sellers. Through the use of Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant, each salesperson is finding more leads, closing deals quicker and generating 9% more revenue, he said. —With assistance from Matt Day. ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
