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

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If you're interested in broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market, look no further than the VanEck 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.

Sector ETFs are also funds of convenience, offering many ways 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 13, placing it in bottom 19%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Van Eck. It has amassed assets over $214.84 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

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

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 69.70% 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 20.45% 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 71.64% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the VanEck Retail ETF has added about 12.57% so far, and is up roughly 16.13% over the last 12 months (as of 10/11/2021). RTH has traded between $144.23 and $181.89 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.93 and standard deviation of 21.20% 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 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 an outstanding 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 $837.54 million in assets, Amplify Online Retail ETF has $920.56 million. 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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