The US share market has been a great place to invest over the last 15 years. It has been driven by the impressive growth of tech giants like Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Amazon and Apple. Certain ASX-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can give us exposure to US stocks
I do wonder how much longer those US giants can continue delivering strong returns considering we're now talking about businesses worth over US$1 trillion.
I don't think they've finished growing, but the next ten years is very likely to be a slower rate of growth than the last ten years because of their huge scale today. I think they're worth owning, but there are likely other US shares that could perform better in the next few years.
That's why I really like VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (ASX: MOAT). Its portfolio is not heavily weighted to those few US giants.
The ASX ETF is invested in great businesses
This ASX ETF only invests in quality US companies that investment research outfit Morningstar believes have sustainable competitive advantages, or wide economic moats.
A competitive advantage, or economic moat, can come in a variety of forms, including intellectual property, cost advantages, network effects, licenses and so on. For a business to be rated as having a wide economic moat, Morningstar analysts must believe that the competitive advantage is likely to help the business earn good profits over the next 20 years.
With that investment strategy in place, it means the MOAT ETF is investing in US shares with a long-term mindset.
Currently, its five largest holdings, with a position sizes of roughly 3%, are: Estee Lauder Companies, Monolithic Power Systems, Allegion, Teradyne and Huntington Ingalls Industries.
Good prices
The ASX ETF isn't just investing in the most competitively-advantaged US shares it can find, or the ones it expects to have the longest-lasting economic moats.
It's choosing great businesses that are trading at attractive prices relative to how much analysts from Morningstar think they are worth, meaning Morningstar's estimate of fair value of these great businesses.
Strong returns
This investment strategy is clearly working because over the ten years to 31 July 2025, the MOAT ETF has returned an average of 14.8% per year. That's a strong level of return over a long time period and it outperformed the S&P 500's return of an average of 14.6% per year in the last decade.
Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns, but I believe the MOAT ETF can deliver strong returns while not being reliant on a few names to produce those results for investors.
