ETF Research Center

FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund is an exchange-traded fund incorporated in the USA. The Fund seeks to track the performance of the Northern Trust Quality Dividend Defensive Index.

FUND BASICS
Category	US Equities
Fund Sponsor	Northern Trust Investments Inc
Website	www.flexshares.com
Inception date	Dec 14, 2012
Assets (mns)	$461
Currency	USD
Expense ratio	37 bp
Distributions	Quarterly

FUND STRUCTURE
Regulation	Open-Ended Fund
Custodian	State Street Bank and Trust Co
Weighting	Multi-Factor
Index replication	Optimized
Uses derivatives	No
Options available	No

SECTOR BREAKDOWN

CONSTITUENT BREAKDOWN
No. of constituents	159
Wgt avg mkt cap (mns)	$185,793
Large cap (>$10bn)	79.8%
Mid cap ($2-10bn)	19.9%
Small cap (<$2bn)	0.3%
Developed mkts	100.0%
Emerging mkts	0.0%

TOP TEN HOLDINGS
Total	26.7 %
JOHNSON & JOHNSON	3.4 %
MICROSOFT CORP	3.3 %
WELLS FARGO & CO	3.3 %
APPLE INC	3.1 %
UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC	2.9 %
HOME DEPOT INC	2.5 %
CISCO SYSTEMS INC	2.4 %
ABBVIE INC	2.0 %
BROADCOM INC.	1.9 %
EXXON MOBIL CORP	1.8 %

TOP COUNTRY EXPOSURE
	UNITED STATES	96.1 %
	IRELAND	1.6 %
	BRITAIN	0.3 %
	CANADA	0.1 %

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE info

	Custom date range	Compare to
	thru

Standardized Annual Returns (thru October 31)
Year-to-date	1 year	5 years	10 years	Since Incep.
19.1%	11.3%	9.6%	--	13.0%

Market Correlations
versus...	Beta	R-squared
S&P500	0.88	94%
MSCI EAFE	0.73	54%
MSCI Emg. Mkts.	0.46	36%

Technical Indicators
Recent close	$47.24
30d moving avg.	$46.17
Annualized volatility	11.0%
Short interest (ETF)	0.2%
Short interest (Underlying)	3.6%
Relative strength (RSI)	73

Liquidity measures
Avg. volume (thou.)	20
Turnover	0.2%
Bid/Ask (% of price)	0.05%
ADV underlying (mns)	$51,984

Distributions

FINDING ALTERNATIVE FUNDS

Below is a list of 20 potential alternatives to the FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive ETF based on the alternatives' overlap in portfolio holdings with QDEF. Consider funds with lower expense ratios and/or higher ALTAR Score™ ratings as possible alternatives.

Benchmark ticker:

QDEF

Expense:

37 bp

ALTAR Score™:

6.0%

ALTERNATIVE ETFs BASED ON OVERLAP WITH QDEF
Ticker	Fund Name	Overlap¹ vs QDEF (%)	Expense ratio (bp)	Savings vs QDEF (bp)	ALTAR Score™ (%)	ALTAR vs QDEF (%)
QDF	FlexShares Quality Dividend	56.9	37	0	6.9	+0.9
DLN	WisdomTree Large Cap Dividend	46.9	28	9	6.5	+0.5
QDYN	FlexShares Quality Dividend Dynamic	45.1	37	0	6.7	+0.7
DTD	WisdomTree Total Dividend	45.0	28	9	6.6	+0.6
OUSA	O'Shares FTSE U.S. Quality Dividend	44.9	48	-11	5.9	-0.1
DGRO	iShares Core Dividend Growth	43.6	8	29	6.4	+0.4
VYM	Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF	42.3	6	31	7.2	+1.2
FDRR	Fidelity Dividend for Rising Rates	42.2	29	8	7.8	+1.8
OYLD	Invesco Russell 1000 Yield Factor ETF	41.2	19	18	7.0	+1.0
DIVB	iShares U.S. Dividend & Buyback	40.9	25	12	6.6	+0.6
OVOL	Invesco Russell 1000 Low Volatility Factor ETF	40.1	19	18	5.6	-0.4
OEF	iShares S&P 100	39.3	20	17	5.5	-0.5
FNDX	Schwab Fundamental Large Cap	38.6	25	12	6.6	+0.6
XLG	Invesco S&P Top 50	38.4	20	17	5.1	-0.9
SCHV	Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Value	38.3	4	33	7.0	+1.0
PRID	InsightShares LGBT Employment Equality	37.9	65	-28	5.4	-0.6
USMC	Principal U.S. Mega-Cap Multi-Factor Index	37.6	12	25	5.7	-0.3
IWL	iShares Russell Top 200	37.3	15	22	5.7	-0.3
RECS	Columbia Research Enhanced Core	37.0	15	22	5.8	-0.2
FDVV	Fidelity Core Dividend	37.0	29	8	7.4	+1.4

¹Overlap is the percentage of holdings by weight that are identical. For example, if Fund A has a 2% position in Apple, Inc. (AAPL) and Fund B has a 5% position, their overlapping position in AAPL is 2%.

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RESULTS & ESTIMATES

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019E	2020E
Sales per share	**	**	**	**	**	**	**
Earnings per share	**	**	**	**	**	**	**
Dividends per share	**	**	**	**	**	**	**
Book value per share	**	**	**	**	**	**	**

Sales per share growth		**%	**%	**%	**%	**%	**%
EPS growth		**%	**%	**%	**%	**%	**%

Sales per share growth		**%	**%	**%	**%	**%	**%
EPS growth		**%	**%	**%	**%	**%	**%

OTHER FUNDAMENTAL METRICS

Long term EPS growth est.	**%		Debt-to-equity	**x
Asset turnover	**%		Assets-to-equity	**x

Return on equity

Revision activity*

*Six months ago = 100

Net margins

Compound annual growth rates

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VALUATION METRICS

	2018	2019E	2020E
Price-to-sales	**	**	**
Price-to-earnings	**	**	**
Price-to-cash flow	**	**	**
Price-to-growth	**	**	**
Price-to-book value	**	**	**
Yield	**	**	**

Historical valuation trends

Forward multiple:	FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive
Relative to:	S&P500	MSCI EAFE	MSCI Emg. Mkts.	Other ETF:

NEUTRAL

Average appreciation potential. A rating of NEUTRAL is assigned to ETFs with ALTAR Scores in the middle quintile (ranking between 40%-60%) of their category. This indicates that valuations adequately reflect the fundamentals of stocks in these funds.

ALTAR Score™

Calculation of ALTAR Score™
Avg. Return on Equity	18.7	%
Divided by: Fwd. P/BV	2.9	x
Less: Expense ratio	37	bp
Equals: ALTAR Score	6.0	%

More information on ALTAR Score™

MODERN PORTFOLIO THEORY info

CONSENSUS RECOMMENDATIONS: FUND CONSTITUENTS

COMPOSITE RATING	1.62	CATEGORY AVERAGE	1.55

The composite rating is a weighted average of analysts' consensus recommendations for individual ETF constituents, based on the following scale: BUY = 1; OVERWEIGHT = 1.5, HOLD = 2; UNDERWEIGHT = 2.5; and SELL = 3. Readers are cautioned that because analyst ratings tend to be inflated, the composite score may be more useful as a relative measure of sentiment between funds rather than as a stand-alone recommendation.