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Is Invesco KBW High Dividend Yield Financial ETF (KBWD) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Launched on 12/02/2010, the Invesco KBW High Dividend Yield Financial ETF (KBWD - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Financials 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.

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.

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.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination 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

Managed by Invesco, KBWD has amassed assets over $380.17 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Financials ETFs. KBWD, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the KBW Nasdaq Financial Sector Dividend Yield Index.

The KBW Nasdaq Financial Sector Dividend Yield Index is a dividend yield weighted index seeking to reflect the performance of approximately 24 to 40 publicly listed financial companies engaged in the business of providing financial services and products, including banking, insurance and diversified financial services, in the US.

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.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 3.84% for this ETF, which makes it one of the most expensive products in the space.

KBWD's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 11.38%.

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.

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

Taking into account individual holdings, Armour Residential Reit Inc (ARR - Free Report) accounts for about 7.01% of the fund's total assets, followed by Orchid Island Capital Inc (ORC - Free Report) and Agnc Investment Corp (AGNC - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 38.87% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the Invesco KBW High Dividend Yield Financial ETF has gained about 19.62% so far, and is up roughly 18.98% over the last 12 months (as of 12/20/2023). KBWD has traded between $13.12 and $17.63 in this past 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 1.43 and standard deviation of 21.02% for the trailing three-year period, which makes KBWD a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 40 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco KBW High Dividend Yield Financial ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Financials ETFs segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Financials 25/50 Index and the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF - Free Report) tracks Financial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Financials ETF has $9.10 billion in assets, Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $33.82 billion. VFH has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLF charges 0.10%.

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