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Is Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF (RGI) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF was launched on 11/01/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Industrials ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

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.

If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.

This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix of such characteristics.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Invesco, and has been able to amass over $454.93 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Industrials ETFs. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials Index.

This index is an unmanaged equal weighted version of the S&P 500 Industrials Index that consists of the common stocks of the following industries: aerospace & defense, building products, construction & engineering, electrical equipment, conglomerates, machinery; commercial services & supplies, air freight & logistics, airlines, marine, road & rail transportation infrastructure.

Cost & Other Expenses

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

Annual operating expenses for RGI are 0.40%, which makes it one of the cheaper products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.69%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk, but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For RGI, it has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector --about 98.70% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Generac Holdings Inc (GNRC - Free Report) accounts for about 1.68% of total assets, followed by Copart Inc (CPRT - Free Report) and Cintas Corp (CTAS - Free Report) .

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 14.63% of RGI's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF has added roughly 29.98% so far, and is up about 39.53% over the last 12 months (as of 11/08/2021). RGI has traded between $147.68 and $198.60 in this past 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 1.23 and standard deviation of 26.45% for the trailing three-year period, which makes RGI a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 76 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Industrials 25/50 Index and the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLI - Free Report) tracks Industrial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Industrials ETF has $5.59 billion in assets, Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $18.08 billion. VIS has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLI 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 Industrials 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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