Key highlights

  • AQLT tracks the Solactive Australia Quality Select index and held 40 companies, with the top 10 making up 48.74%.
  • Healthcare is 18.18% of the fund, compared with 6.88% for its category, while Basic Materials is 10.33% against 26.24%.
  • The fund size is $1.54 billion, the management fee is 0.35% and the annual yield is shown as 4.01%.

Quality-factor ETFs screen the share market for companies that meet financial criteria and then hold the highest-scoring names. The Betashares Australian Quality ETF (ASX:AQLT) is an Australian example. It was admitted to the ASX on 6 April 2022, is categorised by Morningstar as Equity Australia Large Blend and uses the Solactive Australia Quality Select TR AUD index as its benchmark.

This article explains the exposure AQLT provides, drawing on its ASX fund page: its sector mix, its largest holdings, its geographic split, its fee and its distribution history. It does not include return figures or advice.

What the fund is designed to do

The fund’s investment objective is to provide an investment return that aims to track the performance of the Solactive Australia Quality Select Index, before taking into account fees and expenses. It does this by following the index’s selection rules rather than relying on a manager’s stock picks, and Betashares states that there is no assurance or guarantee that the fund’s returns will meet its investment objective.

The portfolio is considerably smaller than that of a broad market ETF, with 40 companies in total. A quality screen tends to favour companies with stable earnings and high returns, which in the Australian market means larger weights in healthcare, banks and communications, and smaller weights in the volatile resources sector. The page shows a beta of 0.89 and a standard deviation of 10.00, and the ETF’s fund size was $1.54 billion with 43,062,710 units outstanding.

Sector allocation

The sector breakdown shows Financial Services (34.02%), Healthcare (18.18%), and Consumer Cyclical (12.76%) as the three largest allocations. Relative to its Morningstar category average, the fund holds a higher share in Financial Services (34.02 vs 30.04%), Healthcare (18.18 vs 6.88%), Consumer Cyclical (12.76 vs 7.24%), Technology (9.17 vs 3.32%), and Communication Services (7.23 vs 3.95%). It holds a lower share than the category average in Basic Materials (10.33 vs 26.24%), Industrials (3.07 vs 6.74%), and Real Estate (0.00 vs 5.75%). The remaining listed sectors are Basic Materials (10.33%), Technology (9.17%), Communication Services (7.23%), Energy (3.16%), Industrials (3.07%), Consumer Defensive (2.07%), and Real Estate (0.00%).

The fund has no Real Estate exposure, compared with a 5.75% category average.

Asset mix, company size and geography

AQLT is fully invested in shares, with stocks at 100.00% and no cash or bonds. By company size, 89.68% of the fund is in companies above $1 billion and 10.32% in companies between $500 million and $1 billion, with none below $500 million. The category averages are 92.40%, 6.82% and 0.79%.

Australia accounts for 92.83% of the fund, the United States for 3.26%, China for 2.07% and New Zealand for 1.84%. The China exposure is above the category average of 0.20%, and the United States share is slightly below the category’s 3.51%.

Top holdings

The ten largest holdings represent 48.74% of the fund and the remaining 51.25% is spread across 30 other companies. They are CSL (ASX:CSL) at 8.84%, Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) at 5.94%, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) at 5.14%, Telstra Group (ASX:TLS) at 5.05%, BHP Group (ASX:BHP) at 4.94%, National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) at 4.46%, ANZ Group (ASX:ANZ) at 3.85%, Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) at 3.82%, Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) at 3.48% and Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS) at 3.15%.

The list shows that the fund holds all four major banks and a single large position in CSL, while BHP is its only large diversified miner.

Distributions

AQLT pays distributions twice a year. The most recent was a final distribution of $0.971 per unit, with an ex-date of 1 July 2026, a record date of 2 July 2026 and a payment date of 16 July 2026. Previous distributions were $0.468 in January 2026, $0.786 in July 2025, $0.371 in January 2025 and $0.879 in July 2024. The page lists an annual yield of 4.01%.

Fund snapshot and recent filings

On the ASX page, AQLT showed a last price of $36.10, up $0.27 or 0.75%, a bid-offer range of $35.28 to $36.24, a day range of $35.98 to $36.16 and a trading volume of 91,372 units against an average of 77,661. The management fee is 0.35% and the ISIN is AU0000121287.

Recent announcements include the Units on Issue Disclosure for September 2026 on 6 October, the Annual Report on 25 September, the August units disclosure on 4 September, the July units disclosure on 6 August and Estimated Annual Distribution Component Information on 8 July 2026.

What AQLT’s exposure adds up to

AQLT offers rules-based exposure to 40 quality-screened Australian companies, with higher healthcare and communication weights and a lower resources weight than its category. It carries a 0.35% fee and distributes twice a year.