Latest news with #Azoria500MeritocracyETF
USA Today
08-07-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Should investors bet against DEI? What to know about new anti-'woke' index fund
One S&P 500 please, hold the diversity, equity and inclusion. That is the proposed selling point of a new index fund launching Tuesday: The exchange-traded fund mirrors the S&P 500 but excludes 37 companies that engage in DEI. It is the brainchild of James Fishback, an ally of President Donald Trump who used to work for the hedge fund Greenlight Capital and recently became more widely known as the Department of Government Efficiency adviser who proposed sending taxpayers stimulus checks. Last week, Fishback launched a Trump super PAC to back the president in his feud with the GOP's largest individual donor and former DOGE architect Elon Musk. With the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF, Fishback is piggybacking on the Trump-powered DEI backlash. He unveiled his plans in December at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort. 'I am making the bet of my career that, generally, stocks that hire on skill and merit and not on race and gender will do better,' Fishback, CEO and founder of investment firm Azoria, told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview. 'The next couple years are going to decide if this strategy is a success.' Is anti-DEI a good investment? Morningstar analyst Bryan Armour said he expects some investors will flock to the index fund which trades under the ticker symbol SPXM. 'Investors are often drawn to the siren song of a good narrative, especially one that speaks to their views,' Armour said. 'My guess is there will be some appetite for an ETF like this.' But, he said, investors are best off "separating investing and politics.' Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are bundles of stocks that trade on public exchanges like individual stocks, giving investors the ability to buy hundreds of securities in a single purchase. Anyone with a brokerage account can put money in ETFs, which can be bought and sold like shares during the trading day. Ideologically driven S&P 500 trackers tend to charge high fees and attract meager investment, University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter told USA TODAY in December. 'We will probably see some more anti-'woke' ETFs but only the biggest will survive,' Ritter said. 'Each year, a lot of small ETFs get closed or merged because there is not enough liquidity to attract investors and cover the costs of managing the ETF.' Is there a DEI 'drag' on stocks? Fishback told USA TODAY his index fund filters out more than three dozen companies that use explicit race and gender quotas in hiring decisions including Nike, Airbnb and Intel. Airbnb and Nike declined to comment. In a statement, Intel said its hiring and promotion practices "follow a competitive and fair process in compliance with the law and we do not use identity based quotas.' Initially, Fishback thought the announcement of his S&P 500 tracker would put pressure on the nation's largest companies to roll back these policies, but in conversations with business leaders, Fishback said he discovered they 'genuinely believe that their DEI hiring targets help their long-term business" and few could be persuaded to make changes. 'I thought a lot more companies would have taken these policies off the table," he said. "But the fact that six months later, there are still three dozen companies hiring on race and gender tells me that this product has to be there." The Florida investment fund manager said his research shows a 'DEI drag' has caused these 37 stocks to underperform for the last two years. "We identified DEI hiring targets as the likely driver of underperformance by studying a diverse set of 37 companies across 26 industries that share little in common except for one policy: explicit, quantitative DEI hiring targets. This uniformity allowed us to isolate that variable as a common denominator," Fishback said. On average, the companies saw their stocks rise 3.8% in the 30 days after dropping diversity hiring targets, compared to the S&P 500's average monthly return of 1.24%, according to Fishback. "Our research demonstrates a strong negative association between explicit demographic hiring targets and stock returns," he said. Analysts were skeptical. 'I find it hard to believe that DEI hiring practices can be directly linked to stock underperformance,' Armour said. The Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF charges a management fee of 0.47%, meaning if an investor puts in $10,000, they will have paid approximately $48 in fees to the fund manager after one year. Even if diversity targets were the common denominator, the omitted companies would need to "underperform by a lot" to make the fund a worthwhile investment when an investor can buy an S&P 500 fund "for three basis points of fees or less," Armour said.
CNBC
06-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Investment firm Azoria postpones Tesla ETF after Musk plans political party
Investment firm Azoria Partners said on Saturday it will postpone the listing of its Azoria Tesla Convexity exchange traded fund after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he was forming a new U.S. political party. Musk made the announcement a day after polling his followers on the X social media platform he owns, declaring, "Today the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom." Azoria was set to launch the Tesla ETF, which would invest in the electric vehicle company's shares and options, next week. However, following Musk's announcement, Azoria CEO James Fishback posted on X several critical comments about the new party and repeated his support for U.S. President Donald Trump. That culminated in a post where Fishback announced the postponement of the ETF. "I encourage the Board to meet immediately and ask Elon to clarify his political ambitions and evaluate whether they are compatible with his full-time obligations to Tesla as CEO," Fishback said. The announcement undermines the confidence shareholders had in Tesla's future after Musk said in May he was stepping back from his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Fishback said. Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. The announcement from Musk comes after Trump signed his self-styled "big, beautiful" tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk fiercely opposed. Azoria is also offering the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF that only invests in the top 500 U.S. companies that do not impose hiring targets under diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to its website.
Mint
06-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Azoria Partners delays Tesla ETF after Elon Musk announces political party, CEO says ‘evalute if ambitions compatible…'
Investment firm Azoria Partners said on Saturday it will postpone the listing of its Azoria Tesla Convexity exchange traded fund after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he was forming a new U.S. political party. Musk made the announcement a day after polling his followers on the X social media platform he owns, declaring, "Today the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom." Azoria was set to launch the Tesla ETF, which would invest in the electric vehicle company's shares and options, next week. However, following Musk's announcement Azoria CEO James Fishback posted on X several critical comments of the new party and repeated his support for U.S. President Donald Trump. That culminated in a post where Fishback announced the postponement of the ETF. "I encourage the Board to meet immediately and ask Elon to clarify his political ambitions and evaluate whether they are compatible with his full-time obligations to Tesla as CEO," Fishback said. The announcement undermines the confidence shareholders had in Tesla's future after Musk said in May he was stepping back from his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency, Fishback said. Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. The announcement from Musk comes after Trump signed his self-styled "big, beautiful" tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk fiercely opposed. Azoria is also offering the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF that only invests in the top 500 U.S. companies that do not impose hiring targets under diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to its website. (Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) Disclaimer: This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Disclaimer: This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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First Post
06-07-2025
- Business
- First Post
US: Azoria delays Tesla ETF launch after Musk announces his new political party
Investment firm Azoria Partners has postponed the launch of its Tesla-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF) after Elon Musk announced the formation of a new political party in the US, called the 'America Party.' read more Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the US Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. File Image/Reuters Investment firm Azoria Partners said on Saturday it will delay launching its Azoria Tesla Convexity exchange-traded fund (ETF) after Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed he's forming a new political party, which he has named 'America Party'. Musk announced the creation of the 'America Party' on social media platform X, just one day after polling his followers. He posted: 'Today the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' Azoria had planned to launch the Tesla ETF next week. The fund would invest in Tesla's shares and options. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, following Musk's announcement, Azoria CEO James Fishback posted several critical comments on X about Musk's new party and reiterated his support for US President Donald Trump. Fishback later announced the ETF's postponement, saying: 'I encourage the Board to meet immediately and ask Elon to clarify his political ambitions and evaluate whether they are compatible with his full-time obligations to Tesla as CEO.' Fishback added that Musk's announcement has shaken investor confidence in Tesla's future, especially after Musk said in May that he was stepping back from leading the Department of Government Efficiency. Tesla has not yet responded to a request for comment from Reuters. Musk's announcement came after Trump signed his 'big, beautiful' tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday—a move Musk has strongly opposed. Azoria also offers the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF, which invests only in the top 500 U.S. companies that do not have hiring targets under diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, according to the firm's website.
Business Recorder
06-07-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Investment firm Azoria postpones Tesla ETF after Musk plans political party
Investment firm Azoria Partners said on Saturday it will postpone the listing of its Azoria Tesla Convexity exchange traded fund after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he was forming a new U.S. political party. Musk made the announcement a day after polling his followers on the X social media platform he owns, declaring, 'Today the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' Azoria was set to launch the Tesla ETF, which would invest in the electric vehicle company's shares and options, next week. However, following Musk's announcement Azoria CEO James Fishback posted on X several critical comments of the new party and repeated his support for U.S. President Donald Trump. That culminated in a post where Fishback announced the postponement of the ETF. 'I encourage the Board to meet immediately and ask Elon to clarify his political ambitions and evaluate whether they are compatible with his full-time obligations to Tesla as CEO,' Fishback said. The announcement undermines the confidence shareholders had in Tesla's future after Musk said in May he was stepping back from his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency, Fishback said. Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. The announcement from Musk comes after Trump signed his self-styled 'big, beautiful' tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk fiercely opposed. Azoria is also offering the Azoria 500 Meritocracy ETF that only invests in the top 500 U.S. companies that do not impose hiring targets under diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to its website.
