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Is Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF (RYH) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF made its debut on 11/01/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Health Care ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.

Market cap weighted indexes work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide a low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns.

But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.

Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.

Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

RYH is managed by Invesco, and this fund has amassed over $1 billion, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Health Care ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care Index is an unmanaged equal weighted version of the S&P 500 Health Care Index. The S&P 500 Health Care Index consists of the common stocks of the following industries: health care equipment and supplies, health care providers and services, and biotechnology and pharmaceuticals that comprise the Health Care sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.40%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.44%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Healthcare sector - about 100% of the portfolio.

Taking into account individual holdings, Resmed Inc (RMD - Free Report) accounts for about 1.72% of the fund's total assets, followed by Danaher Corp (DHR - Free Report) and Idexx Laboratories Inc (IDXX - Free Report) .

RYH's top 10 holdings account for about 16.82% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 18.83% so far this year and it's up approximately 32.82% in the last one year (as of 11/01/2021). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $236.54 and $320.85.

The ETF has a beta of 0.90 and standard deviation of 21.92% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 66 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV - Free Report) tracks Health Care Select Sector Index. Vanguard Health Care ETF has $16.72 billion in assets, Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF has $31.75 billion. VHT has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLV charges 0.12%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Health Care ETFs.

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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