PIMCO Commodity Strategy Active Exchange-Traded Fund

Summary Prospectus

October 30, 2023 (as supplemented January 16, 2024) 

Ticker CMDT NYSE Arca

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, reports to shareholders (once available) and other information about the Fund online at pimcoetfs.com/resources. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 888.400.4ETF (888.400.4383) or by sending an email request to piprocess@dstsystems.com. The Fund’s prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated October 30, 2023, as supplemented, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.

Investment Objective

The Fund seeks total return which exceeds that of its benchmark, consistent with prudent investment management.

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

This table describes the fees and expenses that 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. 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment): N/A

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment): 

Management Fees	0.79%
Other Expenses(1)	0.01%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses	0.04%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses	0.84%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement(2)(3)(4)	(0.19%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement	0.65%

1

“Other Expenses” include interest expense of 0.01%. Interest expense is borne by the Fund separately from the management fees paid to Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (“PIMCO”). Excluding interest expense, Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement are 0.64%.

2

Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (“PIMCO”) has contractually agreed, through October 31, 2024, to reduce its management fee by 0.15% of the average daily net assets of the Fund. In any month in which the investment management agreement is in effect, PIMCO is entitled to reimbursement by the Fund of any portion of the management fee waived as set forth above (the “Fee Waiver Reimbursement Amount”) during the previous thirty-six months from the time of the waiver, provided that such amount paid to PIMCO will not: 1) together with any recoupment of organizational expenses, pro rata share of expenses related to obtaining or maintaining a Legal Entity Identifier and pro rata Trustee fees pursuant to the Expense Limitation Agreement, exceed the Expense Limit (calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets) (or the amount of the expense limit in place at the time the amount being recouped was originally waived if lower than the Expense Limit); 2) exceed the total Fee Waiver Reimbursement Amount; or 3) include any amounts previously reimbursed to PIMCO.

3

PIMCO has contractually agreed, through October 31, 2024, to waive its management fee, or reimburse the Fund, to the extent that organizational expenses, pro rata share of expenses related to obtaining or maintaining a Legal Entity Identifier and pro rata Trustees’ fees exceed 0.0049% of the Fund’s average net assets (the “Expense Limit”). Under the Expense Limitation Agreement, which renews annually for a full year unless

terminated by PIMCO upon at least 30 days’ notice prior to the end of the contract term, PIMCO may recoup these waivers and reimbursements in future periods, not exceeding three years, provided that organizational expenses, pro rata share of expenses related to obtaining or maintaining a Legal Entity Identifier and pro rata Trustees’ fees, plus recoupment, do not exceed the Expense Limit (or the amount of the expense limit in place at the time the amount being recouped was originally waived if lower than the Expense Limit).

4

PIMCO has contractually agreed to waive the Fund’s management fee in an amount equal to the management fee paid by the PIMCO Cayman Commodity Fund CMDT, Ltd. (the “Subsidiary”) to PIMCO. The Subsidiary pays PIMCO a management fee at the annual rate of 0.69% of its net assets. This waiver may not be terminated by PIMCO and will remain in effect for as long as PIMCO’s contract with the Subsidiary is in place.

Example. The Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the costs of investing in other exchange-traded funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated, and then hold or sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating 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
$66	$249

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs 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 the Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example tables, affect the Fund’s performance. From May 9, 2023 (commencement of operations) to June 30, 2023, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 7% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, in commodity-linked derivative instruments backed by an actively managed and diversified portfolio of Fixed Income Instruments of varying maturities and may also invest directly in commodities. “Fixed Income Instruments” include bonds, debt securities and other similar instruments issued by various U.S. and non-U.S. public-or private-sector entities.

The Fund invests in commodity-linked derivative instruments, including swap agreements, futures, options on futures, commodity index-linked notes and commodity options that provide exposure to the investment returns of the commodities futures markets. Commodities are assets that have tangible properties, such as oil, metals, carbon and agricultural products. The value of commodity-linked derivative instruments may be affected by overall market movements and other factors affecting the value of a particular industry or commodity, such as weather, disease, embargoes, or political and regulatory developments. When determining the target allocation for the strategy, PIMCO may use proprietary quantitative models. The target allocations may include long, short, or no positions in the underlying financial markets and commodities specified in the models. The quantitative models are

PIMCO ETF Trust | Summary Prospectus

 

PIMCO Commodity Strategy Active Exchange-Traded Fund

developed and maintained by PIMCO, and are subject to change over time without notice in PIMCO’s discretion. PIMCO also retains discretion over the final target asset allocation and the implementation of the target asset allocation, which may include positions that are different from target allocations determined by quantitative models.

The Fund will seek to gain exposure to the commodity futures markets primarily through investments in swap agreements and futures, and through investments in the PIMCO Cayman Commodity Fund CMDT, Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Fund organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands (the “Subsidiary”). In order to comply with certain issuer diversification limits imposed by the Internal Revenue Code, the Fund may invest up to 25% of its total assets in the Subsidiary. The Subsidiary is advised by PIMCO, and has the same investment objective as the Fund. As discussed in greater detail elsewhere in the prospectus, the Subsidiary (unlike the Fund) may invest without limitation in commodity-linked swap agreements, other commodity-linked derivative instruments and directly in commodities. The derivative instruments in which the Fund and the Subsidiary primarily intend to invest are instruments linked to certain commodity indices and instruments linked to the value of a particular commodity or commodity futures contract, or a subset of commodities or commodity futures contracts. These instruments may specify exposure to commodity futures with different roll dates, reset dates or contract months than those specified by a particular commodity index. As a result, the commodity-linked derivatives component of the Fund’s portfolio may deviate from the returns of any particular commodity index. The Fund or the Subsidiary may over-weight or under-weight its exposure to a particular commodity index, or a subset of commodities, such that the Fund has greater or lesser exposure to that index than the value of the Fund’s net assets, or greater or lesser exposure to a subset of commodities than is represented by a particular commodity index. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest in commodity-linked derivative instruments and commodities that, in the aggregate, provide the Fund with notional exposure to commodities within 20% (plus or minus) of the value of the Fund's net assets.

The Fund may also invest in leveraged or unleveraged commodity index-linked notes, which are derivative debt instruments with principal and/or coupon payments linked to the performance of commodity indices. These commodity index-linked notes are sometimes referred to as “structured notes” because the terms of these notes may be structured by the issuer and the purchaser of the note. The value of these notes will rise or fall in response to changes in the underlying commodity or related index of investment.

Assets not invested in commodity-linked derivative instruments or the Subsidiary may be invested in Fixed Income Instruments, as well as derivative instruments, such as forwards, options, futures contracts and swap agreements, relating to Fixed Income Instruments, equity securities or currencies. The average portfolio duration of the fixed income portion of this Fund will vary based on PIMCO’s market forecasts and under normal market conditions is not expected to exceed one year. Duration is a measure used to determine the sensitivity of a security’s price to changes in interest rates. The longer a security’s

duration, the more sensitive it will be to changes in interest rates. The Fund generally invests in investment grade securities that are rated at least Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”) or equivalently rated by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (“S&P”) or Fitch Ratings, Inc. (“Fitch”), or, if unrated, determined by PIMCO to be of comparable quality (except such limitation shall not apply to the Fund’s investments in mortgage- and asset-backed securities). In the event that ratings services assign different ratings to the same security, PIMCO will use the highest rating as the credit rating for that security. With respect to the Fund’s fixed income investments, the Fund may invest up to 20% of its total assets in securities denominated in foreign currencies and may invest without limit in U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers. With respect to the Fund’s fixed income investments, the Fund will normally limit its foreign currency exposure (from non-U.S. dollar-denominated securities or currencies) to 10% of its total assets. With respect to the Fund’s investment in commodities, equity securities or currencies, the Fund may invest without limitation in non-U.S. issuers and non-U.S. denominated securities or currencies. The Fund may, without limitation, seek to obtain market exposure to the securities in which it primarily invests by entering into a series of purchase and sale contracts or by using other investment techniques (such as buy backs or dollar rolls). The Fund may purchase and sell securities on a when-issued, delayed delivery or forward commitment basis and may engage in short sales.

In pursuing the Fund’s investment objective, PIMCO may emphasize investment strategies that are more strategic, or long-term in nature, with less emphasis on short-term, tactical trading strategies. In addition, PIMCO will utilize a bottom up approach to seek to identify sectors and securities that are undervalued, and the Fund’s investment program may involve a longer investment horizon designed to minimize trading volume and distinct investment strategies as compared with other PIMCO-advised funds with names, investment objectives and policies similar to the Fund. As a result, investments made by the Fund and the results achieved by the Fund at any given time are not expected to be the same as or similar to those made by such other PIMCO-advised funds.

The Fund is non-diversified, which means that it may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund. In addition, the Fund may invest its assets in particular sectors of the commodities futures market.

Principal Risks

It is possible to lose money on an investment in the Fund. The principal risks of investing in the Fund, which could adversely affect its net asset value, yield and total return, are listed below.

New Fund Risk: the risk that a new fund’s performance may not represent how the fund is expected to or may perform in the long term. In addition, new funds have limited operating histories for investors to evaluate and new funds may not attract sufficient assets to achieve investment and trading efficiencies

Commodity Risk: the risk that investing in commodity-linked derivative instruments and commodities, either directly or through the

2  Summary Prospectus | PIMCO ETF Trust

Summary Prospectus

Subsidiary, may subject the Fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities. The value of commodity-linked derivative instruments or commodities may be affected by changes in overall market movements, foreign currency exchange rates, commodity index volatility, changes in interest rates, or supply and demand factors affecting a particular industry or commodity market, such as drought, floods, weather, livestock disease, pandemics and public health emergencies, embargoes, taxation, war, terrorism, cyber hacking, economic and political developments, environmental proceedings, tariffs, changes in storage costs, availability of transportation systems, and international economic, political and regulatory developments. Investments in commodities can also present risks associated with delivery, custody, storage and maintenance, illiquidity, and the unavailability of accurate market valuations of the commodity

Market Trading Risk: the risk that an active secondary trading market for Fund shares does not continue once developed, that the Fund may not continue to meet a listing exchange’s trading or listing requirements, that trading in Fund shares may be halted or become less liquid or that Fund shares trade at prices other than the Fund’s net asset value, and are subject to trading costs, which may be exacerbated if the creation/redemption process becomes less effective, particularly during times of market stress

Interest Rate Risk: the risk that fixed income securities will fluctuate in value because of a change in interest rates; a fund with a longer average portfolio duration will be more sensitive to changes in interest rates than a fund with a shorter average portfolio duration

Call Risk: the risk that an issuer may exercise its right to redeem a fixed income security earlier than expected (a call). Issuers may call outstanding securities prior to their maturity for a number of reasons (e.g., declining interest rates, changes in credit spreads and improvements in the issuer’s credit quality). If an issuer calls a security that the Fund has invested in, the Fund may not recoup the full amount of its initial investment or may not realize the full anticipated earnings from the investment and may be forced to reinvest in lower-yielding securities, securities with greater credit risks or securities with other, less favorable features

Credit Risk: the risk that the Fund could lose money if the issuer or guarantor of a fixed income security, or the counterparty to a derivative contract, or the issuer or guarantor of collateral, is unable or unwilling, or is perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as unable or unwilling, to meet its financial obligations

Oil-Related Risk: the risk that investments in or tied to the price of oil may fluctuate substantially over short periods of time or be more volatile than other types of investments due to, among other things, national and international political changes, policies of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (“OPEC”) and other oil exporting countries, changes in relationships among OPEC and other oil exporting countries and oil importing countries, regulatory changes, taxation policies and the economies of key energy-consuming countries

Market Risk: the risk that the value of securities owned by the Fund may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting securities markets generally or particular industries

Issuer Risk: the risk that the value of a security may decline for a reason directly related to the issuer, such as management performance, changes in financial condition or credit rating, financial leverage, reputation or reduced demand for the issuer’s goods or services

Liquidity Risk: the risk that a particular investment may be difficult to purchase or sell and that the Fund may be unable to sell illiquid investments at an advantageous time or price or achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain sector. Liquidity risk may result from the lack of an active market, reduced number and capacity of traditional market participants to make a market in fixed income securities, and may be magnified in a rising interest rate environment or other circumstances where investor redemptions from fixed income funds may be higher than normal, causing increased supply in the market due to selling activity

Derivatives Risk: the risk of investing in derivative instruments (such as forwards, futures, swaps and structured securities) and other similar investments, including leverage, liquidity, interest rate, market, counterparty (including credit), operational, legal and management risks and valuation complexity. Changes in the value of a derivative or other similar investment may not correlate perfectly with, and may be more sensitive to market events than, the underlying asset, rate or index, and the Fund could lose more than the initial amount invested. Changes in the value of a derivative or other similar instrument may also create margin delivery or settlement payment obligations for the Fund. The Fund’s use of derivatives or other similar investments may result in losses to the Fund, a reduction in the Fund’s returns and/or increased volatility. Over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives or other similar investments are also subject to the risk that a counterparty to the transaction will not fulfill its contractual obligations to the other party, as many of the protections afforded to centrally-cleared derivative transactions might not be available for OTC derivatives or other similar investments. The primary credit risk on derivatives or other similar investments that are exchange-traded or traded through a central clearing counterparty resides with the Fund's clearing broker or the clearinghouse. Changes in regulation relating to a registered fund’s use of derivatives and related instruments could potentially limit or impact the Fund’s ability to invest in derivatives, limit the Fund’s ability to employ certain strategies that use derivatives or other similar investments and/or adversely affect the value of derivatives or other similar investments and the Fund’s performance

Issuer Non-Diversification Risk: the risk of focusing investments in a small number of issuers, including being more susceptible to risks associated with a single economic, political or regulatory occurrence than a more diversified portfolio might be. Funds that are “non-diversified” may invest a greater percentage of their assets in the securities of a single issuer (such as bonds issued by a particular state) than funds that are “diversified”

October 30, 2023 (as supplemented January 16, 2024) | SUMMARY PROSPECTUS  3

PIMCO Commodity Strategy Active Exchange-Traded Fund

Model Risk: the risk that the Fund’s investment models used in making investment allocation decisions may not adequately take into account certain factors, or may contain design flaws or faulty assumptions, and may rely on incomplete or inaccurate data inputs, any of which may result in a decline in the value of an investment in the Fund

Mortgage-Related and Other Asset-Backed Securities Risk: the risks of investing in mortgage-related and other asset-backed securities, including interest rate risk, extension risk, prepayment risk and credit risk. The Fund may invest in any tranche of mortgage-related and other asset-backed securities, including junior and/or equity tranches (to the extent consistent with the other of the Fund's guidelines), which generally carry higher levels of the foregoing risks 

Foreign (Non-U.S.) Investment Risk: the risk that investing in foreign (non-U.S.) securities may result in the Fund experiencing more rapid and extreme changes in value than a fund that invests exclusively in securities of U.S. companies, due to smaller markets, differing reporting, accounting and auditing standards, increased risk of delayed settlement of portfolio transactions or loss of certificates of portfolio securities, and the risk of unfavorable foreign government actions, including nationalization, expropriation or confiscatory taxation, currency blockage, political changes, diplomatic developments or the imposition of sanctions and other similar measures. Foreign securities may also be less liquid and more difficult to value than securities of U.S. issuers

Sovereign Debt Risk: the risk that investments in fixed income instruments issued by sovereign entities may decline in value as a result of default or other adverse credit event resulting from an issuer’s inability or unwillingness to make principal or interest payments in a timely fashion

Currency Risk: the risk that foreign (non-U.S.) currencies will change in value relative to the U.S. dollar and affect the Fund’s investments in foreign (non-U.S.) currencies or in securities that trade in, and receive revenues in, or in derivatives that provide exposure to, foreign (non-U.S.) currencies

Leveraging Risk: the risk that certain transactions of the Fund, such as reverse repurchase agreements, loans of portfolio securities, and the use of when-issued, delayed delivery or forward commitment transactions, or derivative instruments, may give rise to leverage, magnifying gains and losses and causing the Fund to be more volatile than if it had not been leveraged. This means that leverage entails a heightened risk of loss

Management Risk: the risk that the investment techniques and risk analyses applied by PIMCO will not produce the desired results and that actual or potential conflicts of interest, legislative, regulatory, or tax restrictions, policies or developments may affect the investment techniques available to PIMCO and the individual portfolio managers in connection with managing the Fund and may cause PIMCO to restrict or prohibit participation in certain investments. There is no guarantee that the investment objective of the Fund will be achieved

Short Exposure Risk: the risk of entering into short sales or other short positions, including the potential loss of more money than the actual cost of the investment, and the risk that the third party to the short sale or other short position will not fulfill its contractual obligations, causing a loss to the Fund

Tax Risk: the risk that the tax treatment of swap agreements and other derivative instruments, such as commodity-linked derivative instruments, including commodity index-linked notes, swap agreements, commodity options, futures, and options on futures, may be affected by future regulatory or legislative changes that could affect whether income from such investments is “qualifying income” under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code, or otherwise affect the character, timing and/or amount of the Fund’s taxable income or gains and distributions

Subsidiary Risk: the risk that, by investing in the Subsidiary, the Fund is indirectly exposed to the risks associated with the Subsidiary’s investments. The Subsidiary is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended the “1940 Act”) and may not be subject to all the investor protections of the 1940 Act. There is no guarantee that the investment objective of the Subsidiary will be achieved

LIBOR Transition Risk: the risk related to the anticipated discontinuation and replacement of the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). Certain instruments held by the Fund rely or relied in some fashion upon LIBOR. Although the transition process away from LIBOR for most instruments has been completed, some LIBOR use is continuing and there are potential effects related to the transition away from LIBOR or the continued use of LIBOR on the Fund, or on certain instruments in which the Fund invests, which can be difficult to ascertain and could result in losses to the Fund

Please see “Description of Principal Risks” in the Fund's prospectus for a more detailed description of the risks of investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

Performance Information

The Fund does not have a full calendar year of performance. Thus, no bar chart or Average Annual Total Returns table is included for the Fund.Performance for the Fund will be updated daily and quarterly and may be obtained as follows: daily and quarterly updates on the net asset value and performance page at https://www.pimco.com/en-us/investments/etf.

The Fund's benchmark index is the Bloomberg Commodity Index Total Return. The Bloomberg Commodity Index Total Return is an unmanaged index composed of futures contracts on a number of physical commodities. The index is designed to be a highly liquid and diversified benchmark for commodities as an asset class. The futures exposures of the benchmark are collateralized by US T-bills.

4  Summary Prospectus | PIMCO ETF Trust

Summary Prospectus

Investment Adviser/Portfolio Managers

PIMCO serves as the investment adviser for the Fund. The Fund’s portfolio is jointly and primarily managed by Greg Sharenow, Lewis Hagedorn, Andrew DeWitt, Jerome Schneider and Andrew Wittkop. Messrs. Sharenow and Schneider are each Managing Directors of PIMCO and Messrs. Hagedorn, DeWitt and Wittkop are each Executive Vice Presidents of PIMCO. Messrs. Sharenow, Hagedorn, DeWitt, Schneider, and Wittkop have managed the Fund since its inception.

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

The Fund is an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”). Individual Fund shares may only be purchased and sold on a national securities exchange through a broker-dealer and may not be purchased or redeemed directly with the Fund. The price of Fund shares is based on market price, and because ETF shares trade at market prices rather than net asset value (“NAV”), shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (a premium) or less than NAV (a discount). An investor 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 (“ask”) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Recent information, including information about the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is included on the Fund’s website at https://www.pimco.com/en-us/investments/etf.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable to you as ordinary income, capital gains, or a combination of the two, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxable upon withdrawal.

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase Fund shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary, PIMCO or other related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares or 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.

 

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