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Should You Invest in the VanEck Vectors Retail ETF (RTH)?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market? You should consider the VanEck Vectors Retail ETF (RTH - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 12/20/2011.

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Consumer Discretionary - Retail is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 6, placing it in top 38%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Van Eck. It has amassed assets over $248.15 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market. RTH seeks to match the performance of the MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index before fees and expenses.

The MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index tracks the overall performance of companies involved in retail distribution, wholesalers, on-line, direct mail and TV retailers, multi-line retailers, specialty retailers and food and other staples retailers.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.35%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.57%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector--about 70.50% of the portfolio. Consumer Staples and Healthcare round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN - Free Report) accounts for about 19.58% of total assets, followed by Home Depot Inc/the (HD - Free Report) and Walmart Inc (WMT - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 69.97% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 11.71% and is up roughly 50.37% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/04/2021), respectively. RTH has traded between $119.07 and $174.75 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.93 and standard deviation of 21.06% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 26 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

VanEck Vectors Retail ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, RTH is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN - Free Report) tracks PROSHARES ONLINE RETAIL INDEX and the Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY - Free Report) tracks EQM Online Retail Index. ProShares Online Retail ETF has $1.19 billion in assets, Amplify Online Retail ETF has $1.53 billion. ONLN has an expense ratio of 0.58% and IBUY charges 0.65%.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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