SUMMARY PROSPECTUS March 1, 2025 | ||||
T. ROWE PRICE | ||||
THEQ | Hedged Equity ETF | |||
Principal U.S. Listing Exchange: NYSE Arca, Inc. Exchange-traded fund (ETF) shares are not individually redeemable. The 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. Before you invest, you may want to review the fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the fund and its risks. You can find the fund’s prospectus, shareholder reports, and other information about the fund online at troweprice.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-800-638-5660, by sending an e-mail request to info@troweprice.com, or by contacting your financial intermediary. This Summary Prospectus incorporates by reference the fund’s prospectus, dated March 1, 2025, as amended or supplemented, and Statement of Additional Information, dated March 1, 2025, as amended or supplemented. | ||||
SUMMARY | 1 |
Investment Objective(s)
The fund seeks to provide long-term capital growth.
Fees and Expenses
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the fund. You may also incur brokerage commissions and other charges when buying or selling shares of the fund, which are not reflected in the table or example below.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
Annual
fund operating expenses | ||
Management fees | 0.46 | % |
Other expenses | — | |
Acquired fund fees and expenses | 0.27 | |
Total annual fund operating expenses | 0.73 | |
Fee waiver/expense reimbursement | (0.27) | a |
Total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver/expense reimbursement | 0.46 | a |
a T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., is required to permanently waive a portion of its management fee charged to the fund in an amount sufficient to fully offset that portion of management fee paid by each underlying T. Rowe Price Fund related to the fund’s investment therein. The amount of the waiver will vary each fiscal year in proportion to the amount invested in other T. Rowe Price Funds.
Example This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods, that your investment has a 5% return each year, and that the fund’s fees and expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 Year | 3 Years |
$47 | $148 |
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 the fund’s 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. Because the fund commenced operations on or following the date of this prospectus, there is no portfolio turnover information quoted for the fund.
T. ROWE PRICE | 2 |
Investments, Risks, and Performance
Principal Investment Strategies
The fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investments purposes) in equities. Any derivatives that provide exposure to the investment focus suggested by the fund’s name, or to one or more market risk factors associated with the investment focus suggested by the fund’s name, are counted (as applicable) toward compliance with the fund’s 80% investment policy.
The fund’s overall goal is to combine a long equity strategy with a derivatives hedging strategy that reduces portfolio volatility and provides protection during equity market downturns.
As part of the long equity strategy, the majority of the fund invests in T. Rowe Price and third-party exchange-traded funds and particularly in the T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF (TSPA). TSPA attempts to create a portfolio with similar characteristics to the S&P 500 Stock Index® (Index) with the potential to provide excess returns relative to the Index.
The fund may purchase the stocks of companies of any size and invest in any type of equity security, but typically focuses on common stocks of large-cap U.S. companies. The portfolio is typically constructed in a “bottom up” manner, an approach that focuses more on evaluations of individual stocks than on analysis of overall economic trends and market cycles.
Sector allocations are largely the result of the fund’s focus on bottom-up stock selection. At times, the fund may have a significant portion of its assets invested in the same economic sector, such as the information technology sector.
The fund uses a derivatives hedging strategy designed to mitigate tail risk (i.e., the threat of significant losses during an equity market drawdown) and provide strong risk-adjusted returns with lower volatility than the overall equity markets. The positioning within the derivatives overlay will vary based on overall market conditions, the level of current and expected risk, and/or the severity of a current or expected equity market drawdown. The fund may use a variety of derivatives, such as futures, forwards, and swaps for a number of purposes, such as for exposure or hedging. The fund specifically uses index futures, treasury futures, and index options to mitigate tail risk and/or dampen the fund’s overall volatility.
The fund is nondiversified, which means it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in a particular issuer than is permissible for a diversified fund.
Principal Risks
As with any fund, there is no guarantee that the fund will achieve its objective(s). The fund’s share price fluctuates, which means you could lose money by investing in the fund. The principal risks of investing in this fund, which may be even greater in bad or uncertain market conditions, are summarized as follows:
Investments in other investment companies: The fund is subject to the risks of the performance and execution of the investment programs of its underlying funds. The fund does not control the investments, investment program, or investment policies of the underlying funds. As a result, the underlying funds may implement their investment strategies in a manner not anticipated by the fund causing the fund to reduce or eliminate its investment. Poor security
SUMMARY | 3 |
selection by an underlying fund could cause the value of the underlying fund to decrease, which in turn could cause the fund to underperform.
Nondiversification: As a nondiversified fund, the fund has the ability to invest a larger percentage of its assets in the securities of a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund. As a result, poor performance by a single issuer could adversely affect fund performance more than if the fund were invested in a larger number of issuers. The fund’s share price can be expected to fluctuate more than that of a similar fund that is more broadly diversified.
Large-cap stocks: Securities issued by large-cap companies tend to be less volatile than securities issued by small- and mid-cap companies. However, large-cap companies may not be able to attain the high growth rates of successful small- and mid-cap companies, especially during strong economic periods, and may be unable to respond as quickly to competitive challenges.
Stock investing: Stocks generally fluctuate in value more than bonds and may decline significantly over short time periods. There is a chance that stock prices overall will decline because stock markets tend to move in cycles, with periods of rising and falling prices. The value of stocks held by the fund may decline due to general weakness or volatility in the stock markets in which the fund invests or because of factors that affect a particular company or industry.
Market conditions: The value of the fund’s investments may decrease, sometimes rapidly or unexpectedly, due to factors affecting an issuer held by the fund, particular industries, or the overall securities markets. A variety of factors can increase the volatility of the fund’s holdings and markets generally, including economic, political, or regulatory developments, recessions, inflation, rapid interest rate changes, war, military conflict, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and outbreaks of infectious illnesses or other widespread public health issues (such as the coronavirus pandemic) and related governmental and public responses (including sanctions). Certain events may cause instability across global markets, including reduced liquidity and disruptions in trading markets, while some events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors, and industries more significantly than others. Government intervention in markets may impact interest rates, market volatility, and security pricing. These adverse developments may cause broad declines in market value due to short-term market movements or for significantly longer periods during more prolonged market downturns.
Derivatives: The use of derivatives exposes the fund to additional volatility and potential losses. A derivative involves risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in the assets on which the derivative is based, including liquidity risk, valuation risk, correlation risk, market risk, interest rate risk, leverage risk, counterparty and credit risk, operational risk, management risk, legal risk, and regulatory risk. Derivatives can be highly volatile, illiquid, and difficult to value, and changes in the value of a derivative may not properly correlate with changes in the value of the underlying asset, reference rate, or index. The fund could be exposed to significant losses if it is unable to close a derivatives position due to the lack of a liquid secondary trading market. The prices of derivatives may move in unexpected ways, especially in abnormal market conditions. Certain derivatives are also subject to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the derivative counterparty will not fulfill its contractual obligations. The
T. ROWE PRICE | 4 |
use of derivatives includes the risk of potential operational issues, such as settlement issues. Derivatives are exposed to legal risks, such as the legality or enforceability of a contract. The adviser may not be able to accurately predict the direction of prices, economic factors, or other associated risks which could cause loss in value or impair the fund’s efforts to reduce overall volatility. New regulations may make derivatives more costly, limit availability, or otherwise affect their value or performance.
Sector exposure: Issuers in the same economic sector may be similarly affected by economic or market events, making the fund more vulnerable to unfavorable developments in that economic sector than funds that invest more broadly.
Information technology sector: Information technology companies face intense competition, both domestically and internationally, which may have an adverse effect on their profit margins. Like other technology companies, information technology companies may have limited product lines, markets, financial resources, or personnel.
Authorized Participant: Only an Authorized Participant may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the fund. The fund has a limited number of intermediaries that act as Authorized Participants, and none of these Authorized Participants are or will be obligated to engage in creation or redemption transactions. To the extent that Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation or redemption orders with respect to the fund and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem, (i) the market price of the fund’s shares may trade at a premium or discount to its net asset value (NAV), (ii) an active trading market for the fund may not develop or be maintained, and (iii) there is no assurance that the requirements of the exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the fund will continue to be met or remain unchanged.
ETF shares trading: Shares of the fund are listed for trading on a national securities exchange and are bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of shares are expected to fluctuate in response to changes in the fund’s NAV, the value of the fund’s holdings, and supply and demand for shares. Disruptions to creations and redemptions, significant market volatility, potential lack of an active trading market for the shares (including through a trading halt), or other factors may widen bid-ask spreads and result in the shares trading significantly above (at a premium) or below (at a discount) to NAV or to the value of the fund’s holdings. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
New fund: Because the fund is new, it has a relatively small number of shareholders and assets under management. As a result, the portfolio manager may experience difficulties in fully implementing the fund’s investment program and may be less able to respond to increases in shareholder transaction activity. The fund’s limited operating history could make it more difficult to evaluate the performance of the portfolio manager and the fund’s investment strategies. In addition, there can be no assurance that the fund will ultimately grow to an economically viable size, which could lead to the fund eventually ceasing its operations.
SUMMARY | 5 |
Active management: The fund’s overall investment program and holdings selected by the fund’s investment adviser may underperform the broad markets, relevant indices, or other funds with similar objectives and investment strategies.
Cybersecurity breaches: The fund could be harmed by intentional cyberattacks and other cybersecurity breaches, including unauthorized access to the fund’s assets, confidential information, or other proprietary information. In addition, a cybersecurity breach could cause one of the fund’s service providers or financial intermediaries to suffer unauthorized data access, data corruption, or loss of operational functionality.
Performance
Because the fund commenced operations on or following the date of this prospectus, there is no historical performance information shown here. Performance history will be presented after the fund has been in operation for one full calendar year.
Current performance information is available through troweprice.com.
Management
Investment Adviser T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. (T. Rowe Price or Price Associates)
Portfolio Manager | Title | Managed | Joined |
Sean P. McWilliams | Chair of Investment Advisory Committee | 2025 | 2009 |
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only with Authorized Participants and only in large blocks of 25,000 shares (each, a “Creation Unit”). Individual fund shares may not be purchased or redeemed directly with the fund. An Authorized Participant may purchase or redeem a Creation Unit of the fund each business day that the fund is open in exchange for the delivery of a designated portfolio of in-kind securities and/or cash.
Individual fund shares may be purchased and sold only on a national securities exchange through brokers. Shares are listed for trading on NYSE Arca, Inc. and because the shares will trade at market prices rather than at NAV, shares may trade at prices greater than NAV (at a premium), at NAV, or less than NAV (at a discount). You may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares of the fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares of the fund (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). All purchases and sales are made pursuant to this prospectus. Please refer to the fund’s website for additional information (troweprice.com).
Tax Information
The fund declares dividends, if any, and pays them annually. A distribution may consist of ordinary dividends, capital gains, and return of capital. Sales of fund shares and distributions by the fund generally may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains unless you invest through a tax-deferred account (in which case you will be taxed upon withdrawal from such account).
T. ROWE PRICE | 6 |
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), T. Rowe Price and its affiliates may pay the intermediary for the sale of fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. | ETF1177-045 3/1/25 |