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

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

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.

Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.

There are some investors, though, who think it's possible to beat the market with great stock selection; this group likely invests in another class of funds known as smart beta, which track non-cap weighted strategies.

By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.

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

Because the fund has amassed over $301.19 million, this makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Energy ETFs. RYE is managed by Invesco. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy Index equally weights stocks in the energy sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.40%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 2.13%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For RYE, it has heaviest allocation in the Energy sector --about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Marathon Oil Corp (MRO - Free Report) accounts for about 5.47% of total assets, followed by Diamondback Energy Inc (FANG - Free Report) and Devon Energy Corp (DVN - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 50.34% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, RYE has gained about 7.44%, and it's up approximately 56.89% in the last one year (as of 01/10/2022). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $32.40 and $53.12.

RYE has a beta of 1.99 and standard deviation of 46.41% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a high risk choice in the space. With about 24 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

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

Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Energy 25/50 Index and the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE - Free Report) tracks Energy Select Sector Index. Vanguard Energy ETF has $6.45 billion in assets, Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF has $29.96 billion. VDE has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLE 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 Energy 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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