“I don’t want to invest in any gun makers,” said our client. She was and is passionate and adamant. “This shooting stuff has to stop.”
“I agree with the goal” is my repeated reply. No one wants to see the scenes we are witnessing. But let’s talk about the investing issue and not the shooting itself. We agree about the shooting.
Part of your account is invested in high-grade bonds. Some are tax-free or taxable municipal bonds, and others are investment-grade corporate bonds and government bonds. There is no junk credit there. None of the bonds are directly used to finance any gun maker. We don’t own bonds of companies like American Outdoor Brands (NASDAQ:AOBC) (formerly Smith & Wesson) or Sturm Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR), the maker of the AR-15. So the Cumberland bond accounts meet the client’s test.
Not So-Easy ETFs
But the ETFs become much more difficult. In the case of the larger and broad-based ETFs, it is almost impossible not to have some exposure to a gun maker. Barron’s examined this issue deeply and found that Blackrock (NYSE:BLK) and Vanguard together own 26% of Sturm Ruger. American Outdoor Brands is part of the Russell 2000 Index. So owning an ETF of that index automatically includes that gun maker. The amounts involved are relatively small. Barron’s says that “The gun companies generate huge controversy, but not much in the way of investor value — the market cap of all three gun stocks combined is just $2.5 billion, a rounding error in the trillions of dollars managed by Vanguard and BlackRock.”
Will there be any changes coming to this landscape? We shall see. Can pressures cause mutual fund companies and institutional investors to alter the composition of portfolios and indexes? We know the revelation that the Florida Retirement Pensions System had a small investment in gun manufacturers is an embarrassment to that organization and to the government of Florida. The amount is only $4 million out of $163 billion, according to Barron’s, and about half of that comes from an index fund that tracks the Russell 3000 Index.
So what is an anti-gun investor to do?
At Cumberland, we do not pick single stocks. We favor low-cost and diversified ETF strategies as an efficient and favorable way to invest in the stock markets of the US and the rest of the world. It is impossible to apply that approach without some very small exposure to gun makers or ammunition makers or the chemical companies that support them or the shipping companies that deliver guns or the retailers that sell them.
That fact doesn’t dismiss the possibility of activism by an individual who is anti-gun. There are many ways to express your views. You can see that in the news flow about organizations that are delinking with the NRA. As for the pro-gun investor, the single-stock approach allows you to put your money directly with the company that makes the AR-15 if you want to.
Lastly, we advise every investor to dig deeply and do research. Then decide for yourself. At Cumberland, we will continue to use the broad-based ETFs in the composition of our US ETF portfolios. We will apply the same standard to foreign portfolios. We think that is the best approach for investors to follow.
Read the first part in this series, "Guns: Part 1, A Personal Journey."