Astoria Advisors has launched its second ETF, an actively managed fund offering exposure to high-quality growth stocks across US large and mid-cap equities.

GQQQ targets high-quality growth stocks from leading US large and mid-cap companies.

The Astoria US Quality Growth Kings ETF (GQQQ US) has been listed on Nasdaq with an expense ratio of 0.35%.

The fund selects its constituents from an initial universe comprising companies with market capitalizations exceeding $5 billion, with a focus on growth-oriented firms – only those with price/earnings ratios, sales growth, or earnings growth above their sector average are considered.

Astoria uses proprietary quantitative metrics to rank each company in the universe based on quality and growth factors, harnessing metrics such as return on equity, return on investment capital, price-to-earnings-growth ratio, and earnings momentum, among others.

A weighted average rank is then determined based on a combination of these factors, and the top 75-100 stocks are selected. Constituents are generally weighted using a sector-optimized, market capitalization approach.

By focusing on companies with strong fundamentals, robust earnings, and leadership in their respective sectors, Astoria believes the strategy can deliver higher risk-adjusted returns with lower volatility compared to traditional broad US large-cap growth indices.

GQQQ’s top holdings include some of the most renowned names in the technology sector, such as Meta Platforms, NVIDIA, Oracle, Apple, and Microsoft, each making up between 4.8% and 5.2% of the portfolio.

Astoria’s debut ETF, the $150 million Astoria US Equal Weight Quality ETF (ROE US), came to market in August last year and has an expense ratio of 0.49%. ROE delivers a similar investment strategy as GQQQ but is applied across all US large and mid-caps, not just growth-oriented stocks.