The Best US Equity ETFs to Buy

Given the size of the US stock market, exchange-traded funds focused on US equities are core to many portfolios. While most investors look at index-tracking ETFs, actively managed US stock ETFs are also available. We’ve screened for the actively managed US stock ETFs that Morningstar analysts believe have the best chance of outperforming.

The 4 Best US Equity ETFs to Buy in 2026

Funds in the US equity category must invest at least 90% of their equity holdings in securities domiciled in the United States, and their average market capitalization must be greater than the US small/mid cap threshold.

We screened for funds with

of Bronze, Silver, or Gold and 100% analyst coverage. All the ETFs on the list fall into the US equity and have at least C$100 million in assets. All data is as of June 8.

• NBI US Equity Fund NBUE
• BMO Low Volatility US Equity Hedged to CAD ETF ZLH
• BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF ZLU
• JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income Active ETF JEPI

Morningstar expects these funds to outperform their peers over a full market cycle. But while they fall into the same category, they may practice different strategies and behave differently. Investors need to do some homework to understand exactly what a particular fund invests in before buying.

Here’s a quick look at each of the best US equity ETFs. Be sure to review a fund’s complete report for more details.

NBI US Equity Fund

• Fund Size
  : C$1.6 billion
• MER: N/A
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver
• Morningstar Rating
  : N/A

This National Bank (Canada) fund launched in September 2025.

The team applies a rigorous research process. It targets high-quality companies with durable competitive advantages. It uses quality metrics such as low leverage, high returns on capital, and high margins, alongside growth and valuation criteria to narrow its universe before subjecting promising ideas to detailed analysis and debate. The result is a high-conviction, low-turnover portfolio of 25-35 stocks. The portfolio has a persistent quality tilt and little exposure to cyclical industries such as banks or to business models with higher uncertainty or elevated valuations that do not satisfy process criteria.

From May 2014 through April 2026, the NBI US Equity F class outperformed the US equity Morningstar Category average by 2 percentage points annualized in Canadian dollars, but its quality-focused style can underperform when more cyclical stocks or those with greater business model uncertainty drive market gains, as it has during the past three years when the strategy’s 11.4% annualized gain trailed the average peer’s 17.2%. The portfolio had no exposure to outperforming banks. It also didn’t own artificial intelligence winner Nvidia, as the manager preferred semiconductor stocks with more diversified end markets.

Despite recent weakness, the team’s experience and disciplined process remain key advantages for patient investors.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the NBI US Equity Fund.

BMO Low Volatility US Equity Hedged to CAD ETF

• Fund Size
  : C$100 million
• MER: 0.33
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver
• Morningstar Rating
  : ★★

This C$100 million fund has gained 12.33% over the past 12 months, while the average fund in its category is up 21.01%. The BMO fund, launched in February 2016, has climbed 9.73% over the past three years and 7.35% over the past five.

BMO Low Volatility US Equity targets the 100 stocks from the S&P 500 with the lowest market sensitivity. The strategy should weather storms well and deliver solid long-term risk-adjusted returns.

The fund uses beta, a measure of a stock’s sensitivity to market movements, to select and weight stocks, sweeping in the 100 US large-cap stocks with the lowest beta. The fund calculates beta using five years of data, with more emphasis placed on recent years. That results in a portfolio designed to exhibit lower volatility than the US market, with shallower drawdowns but less upside potential. The fund rebalances in May and reconstitutes in November while also limiting stock or sector concentration. This ensures a balanced portfolio.

Turnover tends to be slightly below the Morningstar Category average but above market-cap-weighted index fund peers. Its beta-weighting scheme requires bigger adjustments during each rebalance and reconstitution. While this introduces modestly higher trading activity, it is a necessary trade-off to maintain the fund’s low-volatility focus.

The portfolio doesn’t use market-cap weighting, which means it looks different from the cap-weighted Morningstar US Market CAD Index category benchmark. Sector weightings diverge meaningfully. The fund leans heavily into the utilities and consumer defensive sectors at the expense of technology, compared with the category index. Differences in sector allocations mean that the fund’s performance won’t necessarily move with its benchmark, especially over shorter periods.

The fund is well-diversified, even with just 100 stocks. It holds less than a tenth as many stocks as the category index, but the fund stashes far fewer assets in its top holdings than the category index. The fund’s 20% stake in its largest 10 holdings makes it 13 percentage points less concentrated than the category index as of June 2025.

BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF (CAD) has consistently delivered lower volatility than the category index, but that stability has diminished returns. It underperformed the Morningstar US Market CAD Index by 3.09 percentage points annualized since its inception in 2013 through July 2025. The fund’s value tilt contributed to some of this underperformance, however, and it did better against the value-oriented Morningstar US Large Value CAD Index.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the BMO Low Volatility US Equity Hedged to CAD ETF.

BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF

• Fund Size
  : C$2.5 billion
• MER: 0.33
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver
• Morningstar Rating
  : ★★

This C$2.5 billion fund has climbed 16.21% over the past 12 months, underperforming the average fund in its category, which rose 21.01%. The BMO fund, launched in March 2013, has climbed 12.70% over the past three years and 11.37% over the past five.

BMO Low Volatility US Equity targets 100 stocks from the S&P 500 with the lowest market sensitivity. The strategy should weather storms well and deliver solid long-term risk-adjusted returns.

The fund uses beta, a measure of a stock’s sensitivity to market movements, to select and weight stocks, sweeping in the 100 US large-cap stocks with the lowest beta. The fund calculates beta using five years of data, with more emphasis placed on recent years. That results in a portfolio designed to exhibit lower volatility than the US market, with shallower drawdowns but less upside potential. The fund rebalances in May and reconstitutes in November while also limiting stock or sector concentration. This ensures a balanced portfolio.

Turnover tends to be slightly below the Morningstar Category average but above market-cap-weighted index fund peers. Its beta-weighting scheme requires bigger adjustments during each rebalance and reconstitution. While this introduces modestly higher trading activity, it is a necessary trade-off to maintain the fund’s low-volatility focus.

The portfolio doesn’t use market-cap weighting, which means it looks different from the cap-weighted Morningstar US Market CAD Index category benchmark. Sector weightings diverge meaningfully. The fund leans heavily into the utilities and consumer defensive sectors at the expense of technology, compared with the category index. Differences in sector allocations mean that the fund’s performance won’t necessarily move with its benchmark, especially over shorter periods.

The fund is well-diversified, even with just 100 stocks. It holds less than a tenth as many stocks as the category index, but the fund stashes far fewer assets in its top holdings than the category index. The fund’s 20% stake in its largest 10 holdings makes it 13 percentage points less concentrated than the category index as of June 2025.

BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF (CAD) has consistently delivered lower volatility than the category index, but that stability has diminished returns. It underperformed the Morningstar US Market CAD Index by 3.09 percentage points annualized since its inception in 2013 through July 2025. The fund’s value tilt contributed to some of this underperformance, however, and it did better against the value-oriented Morningstar US Large Value CAD Index.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF.

JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income Active ETF

• Fund Size
  : C$362.8 million
• MER: 0.39
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Gold
• Morningstar Rating
  : N/A

This C$362.8 million fund has climbed 9.20% over the past 12 months, underperforming the average fund in its category, which rose 21.01%. The JPMorgan fund launched in September 2024.

JPMorgan Equity Premium Income takes a nuanced approach to covered calls that delivers high income while reducing downside risk. This fund’s incremental improvements on a basic covered-call strategy make it a solid option in the derivative income Morningstar Category, though income from covered calls generally isn’t tax-efficient.

This fund owns a defensive stock portfolio that targets stocks from the S&P 500 while systematically selling one-month call options on the index. The fund uses slightly out-of-the-money calls, leaving modest room to capture the index’s upside. Manager Hamilton Reiner staggers the one-month calls into multiple weekly buckets to diversify the expiration date and strike prices. However, he doesn’t directly write these calls for the fund. Instead, he purchases equity-linked notes that provide exposure to the profits on those call options. This simplifies the fund’s tax treatment but precludes it from taking advantage of lower long-term capital gains tax rates. Reiner’s team alleviates counterparty risks on the ELNs by spreading trades across multiple issuers and limiting transactions to global financial institutions that pass its regular risk monitoring. It regularly tests pricing and liquidity on the ELNs to ensure they’re getting the best deal.

In general, covered-call funds have not been the best buy-and-hold investments for investors with a longer time horizon. The stock portfolio’s upside is capped, and the downside remains exposed to significant drawdowns, which can erode an investor’s long-term total returns. Even for investors with high income needs, there may be more tax-efficient options available, such as selling investments with long-term capital gains. However, covered-call funds provide a simple way to outsource this task and can alleviate problems that come with self-implementation.

This strategy’s options income offsets some losses incurred during drawdowns, and higher implied volatility during these periods often translates to higher call premiums and higher income. The stock portfolio is less sensitive to the market’s movements, which further lessens the sting. It beat the index significantly during the 2022 market meltdown and volatile periods earlier in 2025. Shorting call options means long-term returns don’t measure up to the S&P 500, though the fund still outperformed both the category index and category average since its 2020 inception.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income Active ETF.