Vanguard, WisdomTree, and Pictet AM strengthen their ETF offering in July
14 JUL, 2026
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
The European ETF market continues to expand, and July has brought a new wave of launches that confirms this trend. Vanguard, WisdomTree, and Pictet AM have introduced products in recent weeks that significantly broaden the range of strategies available to institutional and professional investors.
From a finer segmentation of the US market to a focus on high dividends and the emergence of artificial intelligence in indexed management, the three launches share the same background: the search for more precise tools to build portfolios in an environment where differentiation has become a key competitiveness factor among managers.
Vanguard segments exposure to the US stock market
Vanguard has launched four new UCITS US equity ETFs: the Vanguard Russell 1000 U.S. Growth UCITS ETF, the Vanguard Russell 1000 U.S. Value UCITS ETF, the Vanguard Russell U.S. Mid-Cap UCITS ETF, and the Vanguard Russell 2000 U.S. Small-Cap UCITS ETF. The first two allow differentiation between growth and value styles within large capitalization, while the other two provide access to mid and small cap companies through the Russell U.S. Mid-Cap and Russell 2000 U.S. Small-Cap indices.
The management falls on Vanguard's Global Equity Group, a team that manages over $8.39 trillion in assets globally and serves more than 50 million customers. The four products will be listed on the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse, Euronext Amsterdam, Borsa Italiana, and SIX Swiss Exchange, ensuring broad accessibility for European investors looking to fine-tune their exposure to the US stock market by style and capitalization segment.
WisdomTree bets on companies with high dividends
WisdomTree has launched the WisdomTree Global High Dividend UCITS ETF, an exchange-traded fund that offers exposure to companies from developed markets with high dividend yields. The product began trading on Börse Xetra, Borsa Italiana, and SIX Swiss Exchange, and will debut on the London Stock Exchange on July 2, 2026, with a total expense ratio of 0.35%.
Unlike indices weighted by market capitalization, the strategy applies a fundamental approach: it selects securities for their dividend yield and weights them according to the dividends they distribute. To be part of the index, companies must first pass liquidity, dividend payment, and ESG criteria filters, and are evaluated using a Composite Risk Score that incorporates quality and momentum indicators. The end result is a portfolio of 300 companies with diversification controls per share, sector, and country, an approach with which WisdomTree expands its European offering of high dividend strategies, where it already had solutions for American, European, and emerging markets.
Pictet AM launches its first range of ETFs with AI-enhanced active management
Pictet AM has launched its first European range of UCITS equity indexed ETFs with AI-enhanced active management: Pictet AI Enhanced World Equity UCITS ETF, Pictet AI Enhanced World ex US Equity UCITS ETF, Pictet AI Enhanced US Equity UCITS ETF and Pictet AI Enhanced European Equity UCITS ETF. The management corresponds to the team of David Wright, director of quantitative investments of the firm.
The four funds combine a proprietary artificial intelligence engine, responsible for the selection of securities, with an automated portfolio optimization process, all supervised by Pictet's quantitative investment team. The goal is to outperform their benchmark indices by around 1% per year net of fees, maintaining a maximum tracking error of 2% and a beta of 1.0. The range takes as a reference the Pictet - Quest AI-Driven Global Equities fund, launched in Luxembourg in March 2024 and which already exceeds 3 billion dollars under management, with a net revaluation of 50% in dollars until the end of May 2026, compared to 45.9% of the MSCI World in the same period. The new ETFs are already listed on Xetra and Euronext Italy, and will soon also be on the London Stock Exchange and SIX Swiss Exchange.
A month of launches that expands the options of European investors
The three movements, although they respond to different logics (segmentation by style and size in the case of Vanguard, dividend factor in WisdomTree, and artificial intelligence applied to indexed management in Pictet AM), reflect the same underlying dynamic: the growing sophistication of the European ETF market, where managers increasingly compete to offer precision tools instead of generic products. For professional investors, this July leaves new options on the table to adjust portfolios based on style, factor, and management approach.
