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Forget Biotechs: These Value ETFs Soared

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  • (0:30) - Top Performing ETFs In The Bull Market
  • (2:05) - Why are ETFs good for your portfolio?
  • (5:00) - Investing Ideas: Top Value ETFs
  • (9:15) - Why is Guggenheim doing so well?
  • (14:15) - Episode round up: Stock ticker summary

Welcome to Episode #33 of the Value Investor Podcast

Every week, Tracey Ryniec, the editor of Zacks Value Investor portfolio service, shares some of her top value investing tips and stock picks.

Recently, Eric Dutram, Zacks chief ETF strategist, ran a report to look at the top performing ETFs over the bull market period, covering March 10, 2009 to March 7, 2017.  

Stripping out the leveraged ETFs, the report contained 561 ETFs.

You would think that up at the top of the best performers would be the technology-heavy ETFs and glamorous niche ETFs like the biotechs or the social media ETFs.

But actually, the top 2 slots were owned by value stock ETFs.

Huh?

Value investing isn’t just about stocks. Value ETFs can be a valuable tool.

Best Performing Value ETFs of the Bull Market

1.      Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF (RPV - Free Report) : has just 114 positions and was the best performing ETF out of 561 ETFs tracked. Expense ratio is on the higher side at 0.35%.

2.     Guggenheim S&P Small Cap 600 Pure Value ETF(RZV - Free Report) : this is truly a small cap focus with an average market cap of just $800 million. It was the #2 top performer out of 561 ETFs for the bull rally period.

3.     Guggenheim S&P MidCap 400 Pure Value ETF(RFV - Free Report) : was the 6th top performing ETF out of 561 ETFs for the bull rally period.

4.     The SPDR S&P 600 Small Cap Value ETF(SLYV - Free Report) has around 438 stocks in its portfolio as of March 2017. The Top 10 holdings are just 8.45% of assets. The expense ratio is less, at 0.15%. It was 44th out of 561 ETFs in the bull rally period.

5.     The Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR - Free Report) has the largest stock selection, with 834 stocks as of March 2017. It’s median market cap is larger, at $3.5 billion. This ETF has the lowest expense ratio, at just 0.08%. It ranked 49th out of 561 ETFs in the bull rally period. [In full disclosure, Tracey owns it in her personal portfolio.]

For comparison purposes, the general small cap ETF, the iShares Russell 2000 (IWM), ranked 136th out of 561 ETFs in the bull rally period. These 5 Value ETFs above were able to outperform the general Russell 2000 fund.

Value stocks were the place to be the last 8 years.

Why the Guggenheim Funds?

Three Guggenheim value ETFs were at or near the top of the rankings.

What makes these ETF funds different from the other value ETFs? How were they able to outperform their peers?

Guggenheim doesn’t call them “pure” value for nothing. They really are searching for true value stocks which is why the funds all hold fewer companies than most other value funds.

For example, as of March 2017, the Guggenheim S&P 600 Pure Value ETF had just 154 holdings. Comparatively, the Vanguard Small Cap Value ETF had 834. That’s a huge difference.

What else should you know about value stock ETFs?

Tune into this week’s podcast to find out.

Want more value investing insights from Tracey?

Check out her weekly Value Investor service to receive more in-depth analysis on value companies and see which stocks Tracey thinks are the best bargains now.

It holds between 20 and 25 value stocks for the long haul.

Click here to learn more.