International Equity ETFs
  Prospectus
THE U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (“SEC”) HAS NOT APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THESE SECURITIES OR PASSED UPON THE ADEQUACY OF THIS PROSPECTUS. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE. August 1, 2023

 

 

WisdomTree Trust

WisdomTree International Equity ETFs*

Developed World ex-U.S.

International Equity Fund (DWM)

International High Dividend Fund (DTH)

International LargeCap Dividend Fund (DOL)

International MidCap Dividend Fund (DIM)

International SmallCap Dividend Fund (DLS)

International AI Enhanced Value Fund (AIVI)

International Quality Dividend Growth Fund (IQDG)

International Multifactor Fund (DWMF)

Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund (EUDG)

Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund (DFE)

Japan SmallCap Dividend Fund (DFJ)

Currency Hedged Equity

Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ)

Japan Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund (DXJS)

Europe Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ)

Europe Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund (EUSC)

Germany Hedged Equity Fund (DXGE)

 

International Hedged Quality Dividend Growth Fund (IHDG)

Global/Global ex-U.S.

Global High Dividend Fund (DEW)

Global ex-U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund (DNL)

New Economy Real Estate Fund (WTRE)

Emerging/Frontier Markets

Emerging Markets High Dividend Fund (DEM)

Emerging Markets SmallCap Dividend Fund (DGS)

Emerging Markets Quality Dividend Growth Fund (DGRE)

Emerging Markets Multifactor Fund (EMMF)

Emerging Markets ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund (XSOE)

India Earnings Fund (EPI)

India ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund (IXSE)

China ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund (CXSE)

Megatrend

Growth Leaders Fund (PLAT)

*  Principal U.S. Listing Exchange: NYSE Arca, Inc. (except DXJS, DXGE, CXSE and DGRE are listed on NASDAQ and IQDG is listed on Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.)

 

  

 

 

WisdomTree Trust

 

Table of Contents  

 

WisdomTree International Equity ETFs  
Fund Summaries  
WisdomTree International Equity Fund 2
WisdomTree International High Dividend Fund 8
WisdomTree International LargeCap Dividend Fund 14
WisdomTree International MidCap Dividend Fund 20
WisdomTree International SmallCap Dividend Fund 26
WisdomTree International AI Enhanced Value Fund 32
WisdomTree International Quality Dividend Growth Fund 38
WisdomTree International Multifactor Fund 45
WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund 51
WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund 58
WisdomTree Japan SmallCap Dividend Fund 65
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund 71
WisdomTree Japan Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund 78
WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund 85
WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund 92
WisdomTree Germany Hedged Equity Fund 99
WisdomTree International Hedged Quality Dividend Growth Fund 106
WisdomTree Global High Dividend Fund 114
WisdomTree Global ex-U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund 120
WisdomTree New Economy Real Estate Fund 127
WisdomTree Emerging Markets High Dividend Fund 133
WisdomTree Emerging Markets SmallCap Dividend Fund 140
WisdomTree Emerging Markets Quality Dividend Growth Fund 147
WisdomTree Emerging Markets Multifactor Fund 153
WisdomTree Emerging Markets ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund 160
WisdomTree India Earnings Fund 168
WisdomTree India ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund 175
WisdomTree China ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund 182

 

 

 

WisdomTree Growth Leaders Fund 190
Additional Information About the Funds 196
Additional Information About the Funds’ Investment Objectives 196
Additional Information About the Funds’ Investment Strategies 196
Non-Principal Information About the Funds’ Investment Strategies 199
Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds 199
Additional Non-Principal Risk Information 218
Portfolio Holdings Information 219
Management 220
Investment Adviser 220
Sub-Advisers 221
Portfolio Managers 221
Additional Information on Buying and Selling Fund Shares 224
Share Trading Prices 224
Determination of Net Asset Value 224
Dividends and Distributions 224
Book Entry 225
Delivery of Shareholder Documents  – Householding 225
Frequent Purchases and Redemptions of Fund Shares 225
Investments by Investment Companies 225
Additional Tax Information 226
Taxes on Distributions 226
Taxes When You Sell Fund Shares 227
Taxes on Creation and Redemption of Creation Units 227
Foreign Investments by the Fund 228
Additional Tax Information - Taxation in India 228
Distribution 229
Premium/Discount and NAV Information 229
Additional Notices 229
Financial Highlights 230

 

     
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WisdomTree International Equity Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International Equity Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree International Equity Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.48%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.48%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.01% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.49%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 49 $ 154 $ 269 $ 604

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 24% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of companies in the industrialized world, excluding Canada and the United States, that pay regular cash dividends. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) incorporation in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore; (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on shares of common stock during the preceding annual cycle; (iii) market capitalization of at least $100 million; (iv) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $100,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months.

 

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Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. On the Index’s annual screening date, the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 25%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the financials sector comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to Japan and Europe (including exposure to the United Kingdom) comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.

 

   

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Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Financials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the financials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The financials sector includes, for example, companies engaged in banking, financial services, consumer finance, capital markets and insurance activities as well as financial exchanges, financial data providers and mortgage real estate investment trusts. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in interest rates, government regulation, the rate of defaults on corporate, consumer and government debt, and the availability and cost of capital.
   
Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Japan
Investments in Japan are subject to risks associated with its economy's dependence on the export market and consistent government support of its export market. Slowdowns in the Japanese export market may have a negative impact on the Japanese economy as a whole. Japan is also subject to risks associated with natural disasters and escalating political tension in the region.

 

Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States.

 

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The U.K.'s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.
   
Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Large-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of smaller capitalization companies or the market as a whole. Large-capitalization companies may adapt more slowly to new competitive challenges and be subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
   
Mid-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of mid-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of other capitalization ranges or the market as a whole. Securities of mid-capitalization companies are often less stable and more vulnerable to market volatility and adverse economic developments than securities of larger companies, but mid-capitalization companies may also underperform the securities of small-capitalization companies because medium capitalization companies are more mature and are subject to slower growth during economic expansion.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

   

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Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI EAFE Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. In addition, performance also is shown for the MSCI EAFE Value Index, another comparative index that also represents the asset class in which the Fund invests. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

inteq.jpg

Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 8.86%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 17.34% 4Q/2022
Lowest Return (25.52)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International Equity Fund 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (9.11)% 0.26% 3.95%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (9.97)% (0.52)% 3.05%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (4.67)% 0.26% 3.03%
WisdomTree International Equity Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (8.81)% 0.51% 4.19%
MSCI EAFE Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (14.45)% 1.54% 4.67%
MSCI EAFE Value Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (5.58)% 0.17% 3.51%

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

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Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

   

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WisdomTree International High Dividend Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International High Dividend Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree International High Dividend Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.58%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.58%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be unchanged.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 59 $ 186 $ 324 $ 726

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 36% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of companies with high dividend yields selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index, which defines the dividend-paying universe of companies in the industrialized world, excluding Canada and the United States. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) incorporation in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore; (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on shares of common stock during the preceding annual cycle; (iii) market capitalization of at least $200 million; (iv) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $200,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months. Securities eligible for inclusion in the Index are ranked by dividend yield as adjusted by a composite risk score based on fundamental valuation, quality and momentum characteristics. Securities ranking in the highest 30% by dividend yield and top 80% by composite risk score are selected for inclusion in the Index. If a company currently in the Index is no longer ranked in the top 30% by dividend yield at the time of the annual Index screening date but remains ranked in the top 35% by dividend yield, the company will remain in the Index.

 

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Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. At the time of the Index’s annual screening date, the maximum weight of any security in the Index is capped at 5%. On the Index’s annual screening date, the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 25%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the financials and materials sectors comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to Australia and Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.

 

   

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Dividend Paying Securities Risk. Securities that pay dividends, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform the overall equity market or stocks of companies that do not pay dividends. In addition, changes in the dividend policies of the companies held by the Fund or the capital resources available for such company’s dividend payments may adversely affect the Fund.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Financials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the financials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The financials sector includes, for example, companies engaged in banking, financial services, consumer finance, capital markets and insurance activities as well as financial exchanges, financial data providers and mortgage real estate investment trusts. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in interest rates, government regulation, the rate of defaults on corporate, consumer and government debt, and the availability and cost of capital.
   
Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Australia
The economy of Australia is heavily dependent on the price and the demand for commodities and natural resources as well as its exports from the energy, agricultural and mining sectors. Conditions that weaken demand for such products worldwide could have a negative impact on the Australian economy as a whole. Australia is also increasingly dependent on the economies of its key trading partners, including the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, other Asian and certain European countries.

 

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Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.'s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.
   
Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Large-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of smaller capitalization companies or the market as a whole. Large-capitalization companies may adapt more slowly to new competitive challenges and be subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
   
Materials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the basic materials sector. This sector includes, for example, metals and mining, chemicals, construction materials, glass, paper and related packaging products and forest product companies. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, commodity price volatility, demand for basic materials, world economic growth, depletion of natural resources, technological progress, and government regulations.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.

 

   

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Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI EAFE Value Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

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Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 6.91%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 19.04% 4Q/2022
Lowest Return (29.07)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International High Dividend Fund 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (2.12)% 0.34% 3.48%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (3.41)% (0.70)% 2.34%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (0.34)% 0.26% 2.60%
WisdomTree International High Dividend Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (1.92)% 0.63% 3.79%
MSCI EAFE Value Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (5.58)% 0.17% 3.51%

 

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Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

   

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WisdomTree International LargeCap Dividend Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International LargeCap Dividend Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree International LargeCap Dividend Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.48%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.48%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.01% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.49%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 49 $ 154 $ 269 $ 604

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 23% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of the large-capitalization segment of the dividend-paying market in the industrialized world outside the U.S. and Canada. Constituent companies are selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index, which defines the dividend-paying universe of companies in the industrialized world, excluding Canada and the United States. The Index is comprised of the 300 largest companies ranked by market capitalization from the WisdomTree International Equity Index, as of the annual Index screening date. As of June 30, 2023, the Index had a market capitalization range from $2.8 billion to $466.3 billion, with an average market capitalization of $51.7 billion. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) incorporation in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore; (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on shares of common stock during the preceding annual cycle; (iii) market capitalization of at least $100 million; (iv) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $100,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months.

 

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Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. On the Index’s annual screening date, the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 25%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the financials sector comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to Japan and Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.

 

   

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Large-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund invests primarily in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of smaller capitalization companies or the market as a whole. Large-capitalization companies may adapt more slowly to new competitive challenges and be subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
   
Dividend Paying Securities Risk. Securities that pay dividends, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform the overall equity market or stocks of companies that do not pay dividends. In addition, changes in the dividend policies of the companies held by the Fund or the capital resources available for such company’s dividend payments may adversely affect the Fund.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Financials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the financials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The financials sector includes, for example, companies engaged in banking, financial services, consumer finance, capital markets and insurance activities as well as financial exchanges, financial data providers and mortgage real estate investment trusts. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in interest rates, government regulation, the rate of defaults on corporate, consumer and government debt, and the availability and cost of capital.
   
Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Japan
Investments in Japan are subject to risks associated with its economy's dependence on the export market and consistent government support of its export market. Slowdowns in the Japanese export market may have a negative impact on the Japanese economy as a whole. Japan is also subject to risks associated with natural disasters and escalating political tension in the region.

 

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Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.'s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.
   
Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

   

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Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI EAFE Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. In addition, performance also is shown for the MSCI EAFE Value Index, another comparative index that also represents the asset class in which the Fund invests. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

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Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 9.85%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 17.80% 4Q/2022
Lowest Return (24.30)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International LargeCap Dividend Fund 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (6.73)% 0.91% 3.71%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (7.65)% 0.12% 2.80%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (3.24)% 0.75% 2.84%
WisdomTree International LargeCap Dividend Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (6.63)% 1.15% 3.99%
MSCI EAFE Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (14.45)% 1.54% 4.67%
MSCI EAFE Value Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (5.58)% 0.17% 3.51%

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

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Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

   

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WisdomTree International MidCap Dividend Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International MidCap Dividend Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree International MidCap Dividend Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.58%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.58%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.01% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.59%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 59 $ 186 $ 324 $ 726

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 39% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of the mid-capitalization segment of the dividend-paying market in the industrialized world outside the U.S. and Canada. Constituent companies are selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index, which defines the dividend-paying universe of companies in the industrialized world, excluding Canada and the United States. The Index is comprised of the companies that compose the top 75% of the market capitalization of the WisdomTree International Equity Index, as of the annual Index screening date, after the 300 largest companies have been removed. As of June 30, 2023, the Index had a market capitalization range from $1.4 billion to $52.8 billion, with an average market capitalization of $6.2 billion.

 

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To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) incorporation in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore; (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on shares of common stock during the preceding annual cycle; (iii) market capitalization of at least $100 million; (iv) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $100,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months.

 

Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. On the Index’s annual screening date, the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 25%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the industrials and financials sectors comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to Japan and Europe (including exposure to the United Kingdom) comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.

 

   

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Mid-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund invests primarily in the securities of mid-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of other capitalization ranges or the market as a whole. Securities of mid-capitalization companies are often less stable and more vulnerable to market volatility and adverse economic developments than securities of larger companies, but mid-capitalization companies may also underperform the securities of small-capitalization companies because medium capitalization companies are more mature and are subject to slower growth during economic expansion.
   
Dividend Paying Securities Risk. Securities that pay dividends, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform the overall equity market or stocks of companies that do not pay dividends. In addition, changes in the dividend policies of the companies held by the Fund or the capital resources available for such company’s dividend payments may adversely affect the Fund.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Financials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the financials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The financials sector includes, for example, companies engaged in banking, financial services, consumer finance, capital markets and insurance activities as well as financial exchanges, financial data providers and mortgage real estate investment trusts. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in interest rates, government regulation, the rate of defaults on corporate, consumer and government debt, and the availability and cost of capital.
   
Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Japan
Investments in Japan are subject to risks associated with its economy's dependence on the export market and consistent government support of its export market. Slowdowns in the Japanese export market may have a negative impact on the Japanese economy as a whole. Japan is also subject to risks associated with natural disasters and escalating political tension in the region.

 

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Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.'s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.
   
Industrials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the industrials sector, and therefore the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The industrials sector includes, for example, aerospace and defense, non-residential construction, engineering, machinery, transportation, and commercial and professional services companies. The industrials sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, business cycle fluctuations, worldwide economy growth, international political and economic developments, exchange rates, commodity prices, environmental issues, government and corporate spending, supply and demand for specific products and services, rapid technological developments, and government regulation.
   
Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.

 

   

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Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI EAFE Mid Cap Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. In addition, performance also is shown for the MSCI EAFE Mid Cap Value Index, another comparative index that also represents the asset class in which the Fund invests. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

intmcdv.jpg

 

Year

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 6.34%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 17.16% 4Q/2022
Lowest Return (28.48)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International MidCap Dividend Fund 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (14.31)% (1.03)% 4.36%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (15.08)% (1.77)% 3.56%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (7.89)% (0.73)% 3.40%
WisdomTree International MidCap Dividend Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (14.29)% (0.62)% 4.78%
MSCI EAFE Mid Cap Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (20.33)% (0.30)% 4.99%
MSCI EAFE Mid Cap Value Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (12.56)% (0.86)% 4.76%

 

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Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

   

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WisdomTree International SmallCap Dividend Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International SmallCap Dividend Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree International SmallCap Dividend Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.58%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.58%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.02% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.60%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 59 $ 186 $ 324 $ 726

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 51% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of the small-capitalization segment of the dividend-paying market in the industrialized world outside the U.S. and Canada. Constituent companies are selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index, which defines the dividend-paying universe of companies in the industrialized world, excluding Canada and the United States. The Index is comprised of the companies that compose the bottom 25% of the market capitalization of the WisdomTree International Equity Index, as of the annual Index screening date, after the 300 largest companies have been removed. As of June 30, 2023, the Index had a market capitalization range from $80.8 million to $23.8 billion, with an average market capitalization of $1.1 billion. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) incorporation in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore; (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on shares of common stock during the preceding annual cycle; (iii) market capitalization of at least $100 million; (iv) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $100,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months.

 

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Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. On the Index’s annual screening date, the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 25%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the industrials sector comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to Japan and Europe (including exposure to the United Kingdom) comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.

 

   

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Small-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund invests primarily in the securities of small-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund may be more volatile than funds that invest in larger, more established companies. The securities of small-capitalization companies generally trade in lower volumes and are subject to greater and more unpredictable price changes than larger capitalization stocks or the stock market as a whole. Small-capitalization companies may be particularly sensitive to adverse economic developments as well as changes in interest rates, government regulation, borrowing costs and earnings.
   
Dividend Paying Securities Risk. Securities that pay dividends, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform the overall equity market or stocks of companies that do not pay dividends. In addition, changes in the dividend policies of the companies held by the Fund or the capital resources available for such company’s dividend payments may adversely affect the Fund.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Japan
Investments in Japan are subject to risks associated with its economy's dependence on the export market and consistent government support of its export market. Slowdowns in the Japanese export market may have a negative impact on the Japanese economy as a whole. Japan is also subject to risks associated with natural disasters and escalating political tension in the region.

 

Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

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Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.'s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.
   
Industrials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the industrials sector, and therefore the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The industrials sector includes, for example, aerospace and defense, non-residential construction, engineering, machinery, transportation, and commercial and professional services companies. The industrials sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, business cycle fluctuations, worldwide economy growth, international political and economic developments, exchange rates, commodity prices, environmental issues, government and corporate spending, supply and demand for specific products and services, rapid technological developments, and government regulation.
   
Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

   

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Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. In addition, performance also is shown for the MSCI EAFE Small Cap Value Index, another comparative index that also represents the asset class in which the Fund invests. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

intscdv.jpg

 

Year

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 5.31%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 16.23% 2Q/2020
Lowest Return (31.83)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International SmallCap Dividend Fund 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (17.36)% (1.98)% 4.84%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (18.27)% (2.69)% 4.04%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (9.57)% (1.36)% 3.86%
WisdomTree International SmallCap Dividend Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (16.94)% (1.08)% 5.58%
MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (21.39)% (0.05)% 6.21%
MSCI EAFE Small Cap Value Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (14.99)% (0.61)% 5.79%

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

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Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

   

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WisdomTree International AI Enhanced Value Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International AI Enhanced Value Fund (the “Fund”) seeks income and capital appreciation.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.58%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.58%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.01% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.59%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 59 $ 186 $ 324 $ 726

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 148% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund is actively managed and seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in equity securities selected from a universe of developed market equities, excluding the United States and Canada, that exhibit value characteristics (the “Parent Universe”) based on the selection results of a proprietary, quantitative artificial intelligence (“AI”) model developed by Voya Investment Management Co., LLC (“Voya IM” or the “Sub-Adviser”). AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence by machines. Machine learning is a subset of AI that refers to a machine’s ability to learn and improve from experience automatically without being explicitly programmed.

 

To be eligible for inclusion in the Parent Universe, a company must (i) be listed on a non-U.S. internationally recognized global stock exchange or regulated public market, (ii) have a market capitalization of at least $100 million, (iii) have an average daily volume of at least $100,000, and (iv) have an average of six months aggregate daily trading volume of 250,000 shares.

 

The AI model enhances the Fund’s value investing strategy by analyzing a variety of inputs, including company fundamentals and market sentiment, to select equity securities within the Parent Universe that exhibit value characteristics. The AI model seeks to self-identify persistent patterns in company data to identify those it expects to outperform, based on current and historical data spanning more than 20 years, including structured (e.g., financials) and unstructured (e.g., press releases, news articles) data.

 

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The equity securities selected by the AI model typically have a lower price-to-book ratio, a lower price-to-earnings ratio, and greater free cash flow. The AI model is generally updated monthly and typically selects between 60 and 190 equity securities that exhibit strong value characteristics, such as those noted above, and have the greatest potential to achieve income and capital appreciation for inclusion in the Fund. The AI model weights the selected equities based on their overall model scores; however, the AI model limits the weight of any individual company to 6%. The Sub-Adviser oversees the AI model and generally intervenes in limited circumstances to address factors that the Sub-Adviser believes are not incorporated in the AI model, such as responding to corporate actions (e.g., mergers and acquisitions). The Sub-Adviser generally buys and sells equity securities for the Fund on a monthly basis based on the recommendations of the AI model, while also ensuring that the Fund remains in compliance with the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and its rules and regulations.

 

As of June 30, 2023, companies in the financials sector comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15%) of the Fund’s assets; however, the Fund’s sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the Fund invested a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15%) of its assets in the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to, and thus had significant investment exposure to, Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, and Japan, although the Fund’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

AI Model Risk. The Fund is actively managed using the AI model, the output of which is heavily dependent on multiple inputs, including current and historical data (collectively, “Data”). To the extent the AI model does not perform as designed or as intended, the Fund may not be able to achieve its investment objective and may lose value. If either or both the AI model and the Data prove to be incorrect or incomplete, any decisions made in reliance thereon may lead to the inclusion or exclusion of securities that would have been excluded or included had the AI model and Data been correct and complete. Errors in the Data, calculations and/or the construction of the AI model may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Sub-Adviser or the Adviser for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.
   
Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.
   
Value Investing Risk. Value stocks, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform growth stocks or the overall equity market. Value investing focuses on companies whose stocks appear undervalued, but value stocks may not realize their perceived intrinsic value for extended periods of time or may never realize their perceived intrinsic value.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.

 

   

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Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using the AI model. There can be no guarantee that the Fund’s strategies or the AI model will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Financials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the financials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The financials sector includes, for example, companies engaged in banking, financial services, consumer finance, capital markets and insurance activities as well as financial exchanges, financial data providers and mortgage real estate investment trusts. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in interest rates, government regulation, the rate of defaults on corporate, consumer and government debt, and the availability and cost of capital.
   
Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.'s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

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Investments in Japan
Investments in Japan are subject to risks associated with its economy's dependence on the export market and consistent government support of its export market. Slowdowns in the Japanese export market may have a negative impact on the Japanese economy as a whole. Japan is also subject to risks associated with natural disasters and escalating political tension in the region.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Investment Style Risk. The returns from the types of securities in which the Fund invests may underperform returns from the various general securities markets or different asset classes. This may cause the Fund to underperform other investment vehicles that invest in different asset classes.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Large-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of smaller capitalization companies or the market as a whole. Large-capitalization companies may adapt more slowly to new competitive challenges and be subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.
   
Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders who hold the shares in taxable accounts. Increased transaction costs and distributions of capital gains may negatively affect the Fund’s performance.

 

Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the MSCI EAFE Value Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund’s name, investment objective and strategies changed effective January 18, 2022. Fund performance prior to January 18, 2022 reflects the Fund’s investment objective and strategies when it sought to provide returns that corresponded to the performance of the WisdomTree International Dividend ex-Financials Index.

 

   

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Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 11.21%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 18.58% 4Q/2022
Lowest Return (25.42)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International Al Enhanced Value Fund* 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (10.04)% 0.74% 2.96%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (10.98)% (0.32)% 1.90%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (5.34)% 0.53% 2.23%
MSCI EAFE Value Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (5.58)% 0.17% 3.51%
* Prior to January 18, 2022, the Fund’s performance reflects the strategies of the Fund when it sought to provide returns that correspond to the performance of the WisdomTree International Dividend ex-Financials Index.

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Voya Investment Management Co., LLC (“Voya IM”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by Voya IM’s Quantitative Equities Team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.

 

Vincent Costa, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Equities, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2022.

 

Peg DiOrio, CFA, Head of Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2022.

 

Russell Shtern, CFA, Portfolio Manager, Machine Intelligence, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since August 2023.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

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The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

   

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WisdomTree International Quality Dividend Growth Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International Quality Dividend Growth Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree International Quality Dividend Growth Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.42%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.42%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.01% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.43%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 43 $ 135 $ 235 $ 530

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal period, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 48% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index consists of dividend-paying common stocks with growth characteristics of companies in the industrialized world, excluding Canada and the United States. The Index is generally comprised of the 300 companies in the WisdomTree International Equity Index with the best combined rank of certain growth and quality factors, specifically: long-term earnings growth expectations, return on equity, and return on assets. The WisdomTree International Equity Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of companies that pay regular cash dividends. To be eligible for inclusion in the WisdomTree International Equity Index a company must be incorporated in and list its shares on the major stock exchange in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, or Singapore.

 

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To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on common shares during the preceding annual cycle; (ii) market capitalization of at least $1 billion; (iii) an earnings yield that is greater than its dividend yield; (iv) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $100,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months. Eligible companies are ranked according to a rules-based calculation based on the following three factors, weighted as follows: medium-term earnings growth expectations (50%), the historical three-year average return on equity (25%), and the historical three-year average return on assets (25%). The top 300 ranked companies are selected for inclusion in the Index.

 

Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. On the Index’s annual screening date, the maximum weight of any security in the Index is capped at 5%, and the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 20%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the consumer discretionary, health care and consumer staples sectors comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to Europe, particularly Switzerland and the United Kingdom comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.

 

   

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Growth Investing Risk. Growth stocks, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform value stocks or the overall equity market. Growth stocks are generally more sensitive to market movements than other types of stocks primarily because their prices are based heavily on the future expectations of the economy and the stock’s issuing company.
   
Dividend Paying Securities Risk. Securities that pay dividends, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform the overall equity market or stocks of companies that do not pay dividends. In addition, changes in the dividend policies of the companies held by the Fund or the capital resources available for such company’s dividend payments may adversely affect the Fund.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Consumer Discretionary Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the consumer discretionary sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The consumer discretionary sector includes, for example, automobile, textile and retail companies, as well as hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in domestic and international economies, exchange and interest rates, economic growth, worldwide demand, supply chain constraints, social trends, consumers’ disposable income levels, and propensity to spend.
   
Consumer Staples Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the consumer staples sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The consumer staples sector includes, for example, food and drug retail and companies whose primary lines of business are food, beverage and other household items, including agricultural products. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in price and availability of underlying commodities, rising energy prices and global and economic conditions.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of foreign currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.

 

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Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

Investments in Switzerland
The Swiss economy is heavily dependent on the economies of the United States and other European nations as key trading partners. In particular, Switzerland depends on international trade and exports to generate economic growth. As a result, future changes in the price or the demand for Swiss products or services by these trading partners, or changes in these countries’ economies, trade regulations or currency exchange rates could adversely impact the Swiss economy.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.’s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Health Care Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the health care sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The health care sector includes, for example, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, health care facilities, and health care equipment and supply companies. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, lapsing patent protection, technological developments that make drugs obsolete, government regulation, price controls, and approvals for drugs.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.
   
Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.

 

   

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Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Large-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of smaller capitalization companies or the market as a whole. Large-capitalization companies may adapt more slowly to new competitive challenges and be subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
   
Mid-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of mid-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of other capitalization ranges or the market as a whole. Securities of mid-capitalization companies are often less stable and more vulnerable to market volatility and adverse economic developments than securities of larger companies, but mid-capitalization companies may also underperform the securities of small-capitalization companies because medium capitalization companies are more mature and are subject to slower growth during economic expansion.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI EAFE Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

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Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 13.41%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 16.72% 2Q/2020

 

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  Return Quarter/Year
Lowest Return (18.68)% 2Q/2022

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International Quality Dividend Growth Fund 1 Year 5 Years Since Inception
April 7, 2016
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (20.15)% 2.44% 5.58%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (20.77)% 1.94% 5.13%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (11.23)% 1.99% 4.51%
WisdomTree International Quality Dividend Growth Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (20.30)% 2.81% 5.95%
MSCI EAFE Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (14.45)% 1.54% 5.59%

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc., and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

   

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Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

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WisdomTree International Multifactor Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree International Multifactor Fund (the “Fund”) seeks capital appreciation.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.38%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.38%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.01% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.39%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 39 $ 122 $ 213 $ 480

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal period, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 118% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund, an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”), is actively managed using a model-based approach.

 

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in equity securities of developed markets, excluding the United States and Canada, that exhibit certain characteristics that the investment adviser, WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), believes to be indicative of positive future returns based on a model developed by WisdomTree. WisdomTree seeks to identify equity securities of developed countries, excluding the United States and Canada, that have the highest potential for returns based on proprietary measures of fundamental factors, such as value and quality, and technical factors, such as momentum and correlation. WisdomTree employs a quantitative model to identify which securities the Fund might purchase and sell and opportune times for purchases and sales. At a minimum, the Fund’s portfolio will be rebalanced quarterly according to WisdomTree’s quantitative model, although a more active approach may be taken depending on such factors as market conditions and investment opportunities, and the number of holdings in the Fund may vary.

 

WisdomTree seeks to manage the Fund’s currency risk by dynamically hedging currency fluctuations in the relative value of the applicable foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar, ranging from a 0% to 100% hedge. The hedge ratios on such foreign currencies are adjusted as frequently as weekly utilizing signals such as momentum, interest rate differentials, volatility, and cross-asset returns. The Fund uses forward currency contracts and/or futures contracts to the extent foreign currencies are hedged.

 

   

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Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of developed markets, excluding the United States and Canada. The Fund generally expects to invest in large and mid-capitalization companies, but the Fund may also invest in small-capitalization companies.

 

The Fund currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Fund: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the industrials sector comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15%) of the Fund’s assets; however, the Fund’s sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the Fund invested a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15%) of its assets in the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to, and thus had significant investment exposure to, Japan and Europe (including exposure to the United Kingdom), although the Fund’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments  and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
   
Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.

 

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Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a currency or a commodity. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use forward currency contracts and/or currency futures contracts to implement its principal investment strategies. A forward currency contract is an agreement to buy or sell a specific currency on a future date at a set price thereby effectively locking in the exchange rate for the purchase or sale of that currency. Forward currency contracts are traded in the over-the-counter market and generally are not subject to initial or upfront margin requirements. As a result, forward currency contracts are particularly subject to counterparty credit risk, including that a counterparty may be unwilling or unable to meet its contractual obligations. A currency futures contract is an exchange-traded contract that provides for the future purchase of sale of a currency at a specified price of another currency. Currency futures contracts are subject to the risk of imperfect correlation between the movements in the price of the futures contract and the underlying currency.
   
Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region.

 

Investments in Japan
Investments in Japan are subject to risks associated with its economy's dependence on the export market and consistent government support of its export market. Slowdowns in the Japanese export market may have a negative impact on the Japanese economy as a whole. Japan is also subject to risks associated with natural disasters and escalating political tension in the region.

 

Investments in Europe
Many European countries are members of the European Union (“EU”) as well as the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”) and, as a result, the economies and markets of European countries can be closely connected and largely interdependent. As such, adverse events in one European country may have effects across Europe. Investments in Europe are also subject to risks stemming from the uncertain consequences of the United Kingdom's (“U.K.”) exit of the EU single market and customs union (“Brexit”). Further, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, and the continued hostilities in the region, have caused increased volatility in European markets and led to broad ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Uncertainties surrounding the duration and potential increased geographic scope of hostilities may create additional volatility in European and global markets. Any of the above could have a negative effect on the Fund's investments in Europe.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.'s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.

 

   

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Hedging Risk. The Fund seeks to “hedge” or minimize the impact of fluctuations in the relative value of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar. The Fund seeks to hedge against such fluctuations largely through the use of derivatives. Such derivatives may not perform as intended for a variety of reasons, including a lack of correlation between the derivative and the underlying currency, and there can be no assurance that the Fund’s hedging strategies and transactions will be effective. In addition, to minimize transaction costs, or for other reasons, the Fund’s exposure to foreign currencies may not be fully hedged at all times. Currency exchange rates can be volatile, changing quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money. For example, the value of an investment in the Fund could be significantly and adversely affected if the value of foreign currencies appreciate relative to the U.S. dollar at the same time the value of the Fund’s equity holdings depreciate and the Fund’s derivatives investments are not successful in offsetting a significant portion of the Fund’s exposure to such foreign currencies.
   
Industrials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the industrials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The industrials sector includes, for example, aerospace and defense, non-residential construction, engineering, machinery, transportation, and commercial and professional services companies. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, business cycle fluctuations, worldwide economy growth, international political and economic developments, exchange rates, commodity prices, environmental issues, government and corporate spending, supply and demand for specific products and manufacturing, and government regulation.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Large-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of smaller capitalization companies or the market as a whole. Large-capitalization companies may adapt more slowly to new competitive challenges and be subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
   
Mid-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of mid-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of other capitalization ranges or the market as a whole. Securities of mid-capitalization companies are often less stable and more vulnerable to market volatility and adverse economic developments than securities of larger companies, but mid-capitalization companies may also underperform the securities of small-capitalization companies because medium capitalization companies are more mature and are subject to slower growth during economic expansion.
   
Models and Data Risk. While the Fund is actively managed, the Fund’s investment process is expected to be heavily dependent on quantitative models and the models may not perform as intended. Errors in data used in the models may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.
   
Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders who hold the shares in taxable accounts. Increased transaction costs and distributions of capital gains may negatively affect the Fund’s performance.
   
Small-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of small-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund may be more volatile than funds that invest in larger, more established companies. The securities of small-capitalization companies generally trade in lower volumes and are subject to greater and more unpredictable price changes than larger capitalization stocks or the stock market as a whole. Small-capitalization companies may be particularly sensitive to adverse economic developments as well as changes in interest rates, government regulation, borrowing costs and earnings.

 

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Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the MSCI EAFE Local Currency Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. In addition, performance also is shown for the MSCI EAFE Index, another comparative index that also represents the asset class in which the Fund invests. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

intmultifa.jpg

Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 8.24%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 11.58% 2Q/2020
Lowest Return (18.06)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree International Multifactor Fund 1 Year Since Inception
August 10, 2018
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (7.25)% 2.08%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (7.86)% 1.52%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (3.63)% 1.74%
MSCI EAFE Local Currency Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (7.00)% 4.30%
MSCI EAFE Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (14.45)% 2.46%

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

   

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Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

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WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.58%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.58%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.01% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.59%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 59 $ 186 $ 324 $ 726

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 43% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index consists of dividend-paying common stocks of companies with growth characteristics that are incorporated and listed on a stock exchange in one of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the United Kingdom. The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is generally comprised of the 300 companies with the best combined rank of certain growth and quality factors, specifically: medium-term earnings growth expectations, return on equity, and return on assets. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on common shares during the preceding annual cycle; (ii) market capitalization of at least $1 billion; (iii) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $200,000 for each of the preceding three months; (iv) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months; and (v) an earnings yield greater than the dividend yield.

 

   

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Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. On the Index’s annual screening date, the maximum weight of any security in the Index is capped at 5%, and the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country at 25% and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 20%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the health care, consumer staples, industrials and consumer discretionary sectors comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Geographic Concentration in Europe. Because the Fund invests primarily in the securities of companies in Europe, the Fund’s performance is expected to be closely tied to social, political, and economic conditions within Europe and to be more volatile than the performance of more geographically diversified funds. Most developed countries in Western Europe are members of the European Union (“EU”), many are also members of the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”), and most EMU members are part of the euro zone, a group of EMU countries that share the euro as their common currency. Members of the EMU must comply with restrictions on inflation rates, deficits, debt levels, and fiscal and monetary controls. The implementation of any such restrictions or controls, the default of an EU member country on its sovereign debt, significant fluctuations in the euro’s exchange rate, or a change in governmental or EU trade regulations could each have a significant impact on the economies of some or all European countries. The United Kingdom formally exited the EU on January 31, 2020 (known as “Brexit”), and entered into an 11-month transition period which ended on December 31, 2020 at which time the United Kingdom left the EU single market and customs union under the terms of a new trade agreement. The trade agreement governs the relationship between the United Kingdom and EU with respect to trading goods and services but critical aspects of the relationship remain unresolved and subject to further negotiation and agreement. As a result of the uncertain consequences of Brexit, the economies of the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as the broader global economy, could be significantly impacted, which may result in increased volatility and illiquidity, and potentially lower economic growth on markets in the United Kingdom, Europe and globally. In addition, the extent and duration of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, initiated in February 2022, and the broad-ranging economic sanctions levied against Russia by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries, are impossible to predict, but these events could have a significant adverse impact on Europe’s overall economy and may adversely affect the Fund’s performance even in the absence of direct exposure to Russian securities. Any or all of these consequences could potentially have an adverse effect on the value of the Fund’s investments. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in companies organized in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and France, although this may change from time to time.

 

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Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.’s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Investments in Switzerland
The Swiss economy is heavily dependent on the economies of the United States and other European nations as key trading partners. In particular, Switzerland depends on international trade and exports to generate economic growth. As a result, future changes in the price or the demand for Swiss products or services by these trading partners, or changes in these countries’ economies, trade regulations or currency exchange rates could adversely impact the Swiss economy.

 

Investments in France
France’s economy is dependent on its agricultural exports and fluctuations in the demand for agricultural products may have negative impacts on France’s economy. The United Kingdom’s (“U.K.”) exit from the European Union may adversely impact France’s economy due to decreased demand for French exports in the U.K. France has experienced several terrorist attacks over the past several years, creating a climate of insecurity that has been detrimental to tourism.

 

Growth Investing Risk. Growth stocks, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform value stocks or the overall equity market. Growth stocks are generally more sensitive to market movements than other types of stocks primarily because their prices are based heavily on the future expectations of the economy and the stock’s issuing company.
   
Dividend Paying Securities Risk. Securities that pay dividends, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform the overall equity market or stocks of companies that do not pay dividends. In addition, changes in the dividend policies of the companies held by the Fund or the capital resources available for such company’s dividend payments may adversely affect the Fund.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.

 

   

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Consumer Discretionary Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the consumer discretionary sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The consumer discretionary sector includes, for example, automobile, textile and retail companies, as well as hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in domestic and international economies, exchange and interest rates, economic growth, worldwide demand, supply chain constraints, social trends, consumers’ disposable income levels, and propensity to spend.
   
Consumer Staples Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the consumer staples sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The consumer staples sector includes, for example, food and drug retail and companies whose primary lines of business are food, beverage and other household items, including agricultural products. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in price and availability of underlying commodities, rising energy prices and global and economic conditions.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.
   
Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Health Care Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the health care sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The health care sector includes, for example, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, health care facilities, and health care equipment and supply companies. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, lapsing patent protection, technological developments that make drugs obsolete, government regulation, price controls, and approvals for drugs.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.

 

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Industrials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the industrials sector, and therefore the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The industrials sector includes, for example, aerospace and defense, non-residential construction, engineering, machinery, transportation, and commercial and professional services companies. The industrials sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, business cycle fluctuations, worldwide economy growth, international political and economic developments, exchange rates, commodity prices, environmental issues, government and corporate spending, supply and demand for specific products and services, rapid technological developments, and government regulation.
   
Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Large-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of large-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of smaller capitalization companies or the market as a whole. Large-capitalization companies may adapt more slowly to new competitive challenges and be subject to slower growth during times of economic expansion.
   
Mid-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund may invest in the securities of mid-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected if securities of these companies underperform securities of other capitalization ranges or the market as a whole. Securities of mid-capitalization companies are often less stable and more vulnerable to market volatility and adverse economic developments than securities of larger companies, but mid-capitalization companies may also underperform the securities of small-capitalization companies because medium capitalization companies are more mature and are subject to slower growth during economic expansion.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI Europe Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

   

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Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 13.91%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 16.46% 4Q/2022
Lowest Return (20.01)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund 1 Year 5 Years Since Inception
May 7, 2014
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (18.23)% 2.95% 3.36%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (18.68)% 2.48% 2.94%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (10.23)% 2.44% 2.74%
WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (18.04)% 3.47% 3.86%
MSCI Europe Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) (15.06)% 1.87% 2.07%

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser’s Equity Index Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are identified below.

 

Marlene Walker-Smith, a Director, Head of Equity Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2020.

 

David France, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Todd Frysinger, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Vlasta Sheremeta, CFA, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

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Michael Stoll, a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager and Team Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

   

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WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund

 

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Index (the “Index”).

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.58%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%1
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.58%1
1 Excludes expenses associated with the collection of additional European Union tax reclaims resulting from European Court of Justice rulings in several court cases in certain countries across the European Union. If these expenses were included, “Other Expenses” would be 0.07% and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” would be 0.65%.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of their shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 59 $ 186 $ 324 $ 726

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 46% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

 

The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of the small-capitalization segment of the European dividend-paying market. Constituent companies are selected from the WisdomTree Europe Dividend Index, which defines the dividend-paying universe of companies in Europe. The Index is comprised of the companies that compose the bottom 25% (bottom 30% with respect to a company to be deleted) of the market capitalization of the WisdomTree Europe Dividend Index after the 300 largest companies have been removed. As of June 30, 2023, the Index had a market capitalization range from $98.7 million to $23.8 billion, with an average market capitalization of $1.1 billion. To be eligible for inclusion in the WisdomTree Europe Dividend Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) incorporation and exchange listing in one of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom (“Europe”); (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on common shares during the preceding annual cycle; (iii) market capitalization of at least $100 million; (iv) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $100,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months.

 

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Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. On the Index’s annual screening date, the Index caps the weight of components exposed to any one country and any one sector (except for the real estate sector) at 25%. The weight of components exposed to the real estate sector is capped at 15%. The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the annual screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector, country, or individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

 

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the industrials and consumer discretionary sectors comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index's sector exposure may change from time to time.

 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.

 

As of June 30, 2023, the equity securities of companies domiciled in or otherwise tied to the United Kingdom and Sweden comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index, although the Index’s geographic exposure may change from time to time.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. While certain of the risks are prioritized in terms of their relevance to the Fund’s investment strategies, most risks are presented in alphabetical order. This ordering approach is designed to both facilitate an investor’s understanding of the Fund’s risks and enable an investor to easily locate and compare risks among funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

   

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Geographic Concentration in Europe. Because the Fund invests primarily in the securities of companies in Europe, the Fund’s performance is expected to be closely tied to social, political, and economic conditions within Europe and to be more volatile than the performance of more geographically diversified funds. Most developed countries in Western Europe are members of the European Union (“EU”), many are also members of the European Economic and Monetary Union (“EMU”), and most EMU members are part of the euro zone, a group of EMU countries that share the euro as their common currency. Members of the EMU must comply with restrictions on inflation rates, deficits, debt levels, and fiscal and monetary controls. The implementation of any such restrictions or controls, the default of an EU member country on its sovereign debt, significant fluctuations in the euro’s exchange rate, or a change in governmental or EU trade regulations could each have a significant impact on the economies of some or all European countries. The United Kingdom formally exited the EU on January 31, 2020 (known as “Brexit”), and entered into an 11-month transition period which ended on December 31, 2020 at which time the United Kingdom left the EU single market and customs union under the terms of a new trade agreement. The trade agreement governs the relationship between the United Kingdom and EU with respect to trading goods and services but critical aspects of the relationship remain unresolved and subject to further negotiation and agreement. As a result of the uncertain consequences of Brexit, the economies of the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as the broader global economy, could be significantly impacted, which may result in increased volatility and illiquidity, and potentially lower economic growth on markets in the United Kingdom, Europe and globally. In addition, the extent and duration of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, initiated in February 2022, and the broad-ranging economic sanctions levied against Russia by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries, are impossible to predict, but these events could have a significant adverse impact on Europe's overall economy and may adversely affect the Fund's performance even in the absence of direct exposure to Russian securities. Any or all of these consequences could potentially have an adverse effect on the value of the Fund’s investments. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in companies organized in the United Kingdom and Sweden, although this may change from time to time.

 

Investments in the United Kingdom
Investments in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) are subject to risks associated with uncertainties surrounding Brexit and changes in the economic health of its primary trade partners across Europe and the United States. The U.K.’s economy is also heavily dependent on the export of financial services and may be impacted by a slowdown in the financial services sector.

 

Investments in Sweden
Sweden’s largest trading partners include the United States, Germany and certain other Western European nations. As a result, the economy of Sweden may be significantly affected by changes in the economies, trade regulations, currency exchange rates, and monetary policies of these trading partners. In addition, Sweden maintains a robust social welfare system, and Sweden’s workforce is highly unionized. These factors can negatively impact the Swedish economy by causing increased government spending, higher production costs and lower productivity, among other things.

 

Small-Capitalization Investing Risk. The Fund invests primarily in the securities of small-capitalization companies. As a result, the Fund may be more volatile than funds that invest in larger, more established companies. The securities of small-capitalization companies generally trade in lower volumes and are subject to greater and more unpredictable price changes than larger capitalization stocks or the stock market as a whole. Small-capitalization companies may be particularly sensitive to adverse economic developments as well as changes in interest rates, government regulation, borrowing costs and earnings.
   
Dividend Paying Securities Risk. Securities that pay dividends, as a group, may be out of favor with the market and underperform the overall equity market or stocks of companies that do not pay dividends. In addition, changes in the dividend policies of the companies held by the Fund or the capital resources available for such company’s dividend payments may adversely affect the Fund.
   
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.
   
Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time.
   
Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV, and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.

 

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Consumer Discretionary Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the consumer discretionary sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The consumer discretionary sector includes, for example, automobile, textile and retail companies, as well as hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in domestic and international economies, exchange and interest rates, economic growth, worldwide demand, supply chain constraints, social trends, consumers’ disposable income levels, and propensity to spend.
   
Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money.
   
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
   
Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries.
   
Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
   
Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers.
   
Industrials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the industrials sector, and therefore the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The industrials sector includes, for example, aerospace and defense, non-residential construction, engineering, machinery, transportation, and commercial and professional services companies. The industrials sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, business cycle fluctuations, worldwide economy growth, international political and economic developments, exchange rates, commodity prices, environmental issues, government and corporate spending, supply and demand for specific products and services, rapid technological developments, and government regulation.

 

   

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Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index.
   
Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.
   
Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and that of its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair market prices may be adversely affected and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the non-correlation risk. The Fund's use of sampling techniques also may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index.
   
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and the MSCI Europe Small Cap Index, a relevant broad-based securities index. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com/investments.

 

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Year

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of June 30, 2023 was 6.00%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 22.22% 4Q/2020
Lowest Return (36.36)% 1Q/2020

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

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Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2022

 

WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV (22.53)% (1.27)% 6.80%
Return After Taxes on Distributions (23.66)% (2.08)% 6.02%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (12.70)% (0.88)%