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Is Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value ETF (RZV) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value ETF (RZV - Free Report) made its debut on 03/01/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Style Box - Small Cap Value category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.

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

However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.

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

The fund is managed by Invesco, and has been able to amass over $221.51 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Small Cap Value. RZV, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value Index.

The S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value Index measures the performance of securities that exhibit strong value characteristics in the S&P SmallCap 600 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.

With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.35%.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 1.36%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For RZV, it has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector --about 33.50% of the portfolio --while Industrials and Financials round out the top three.

Taking into account individual holdings, Skywest Inc (SKYW - Free Report) accounts for about 3.32% of the fund's total assets, followed by M/i Homes Inc (MHO - Free Report) and G-Iii Apparel Group Ltd (GIII - Free Report) .

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 21.21% of RZV's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 5.82% so far this year and is down about -0.18% in the last one year (as of 11/28/2023). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $83.38 and $106.78.

The fund has a beta of 1.48 and standard deviation of 25.84% for the trailing three-year period, which makes RZV a high risk choice in this particular space. With about 137 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Small Cap Value segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

IShares Russell 2000 Value ETF (IWN - Free Report) tracks Russell 2000 Value Index and the Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR - Free Report) tracks CRSP U.S. Small Cap Value Index. IShares Russell 2000 Value ETF has $10.78 billion in assets, Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF has $24.47 billion. IWN has an expense ratio of 0.24% and VBR charges 0.07%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Small Cap Value.

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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