PRIMECAP plans Wednesday launch of first ETF, POMG, a mid/small-cap fund charging 0.68%

PRIMECAP Management plans to launch its first exchange-traded fund on Wednesday, moving a stock-picking process it has run for decades into mid- and small-cap companies. The PRIMECAP Odyssey Discovery ETF (ticker POMG) will trade on NYSE Arca and charge a 0.68% expense ratio, according to ETF Trends' account of the fund's prospectus, and it aims to beat the Russell Midcap Growth Index over three to five years.

PRIMECAP has run the Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund since 1984, and that fund held $91.6 billion in net assets as of September 30, according to Vanguard data cited by ETF Trends. The Vanguard fund leans toward larger companies, with a median market cap of $255.7 billion. POMG moves the same research effort down the size spectrum.

The prospectus lists eight portfolio managers on POMG, among them Chairman Emeritus Theo A. Kolokotrones. PRIMECAP describes itself as a bottom-up stock picker: analysts and portfolio managers pitch ideas to the full team, but no committee decides what to buy, and each manager makes an individual call. Vanguard describes the mutual fund as using several managers who each run a portion independently, which it says provides "diversification of thought."

POMG is non-diversified, meaning it can hold larger positions in fewer companies, and it may invest a large share of its assets in health care and technology. On selection, the firm will look for stocks with attractive growth prospects that trade at reasonable valuations, per the prospectus.

PRIMECAP's lineup until now has consisted of three PRIMECAP Odyssey mutual funds. Dimensional went the other way this month, converting its final three ETFs into mutual fund share classes and completing an eight-fund move. The wrapper migration runs both ways.

POMG will be the first PRIMECAP product to change hands intraday on an exchange.