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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?

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.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

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.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

RGI is managed by Invesco, and this fund has amassed over $390.02 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.

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

Cost & Other Expenses

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.

With one of the cheaper products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.40%.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.80%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

RGI's heaviest allocation is in the Industrials sector, which is about 98.60% of the portfolio.

When you look at individual holdings, Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT - Free Report) accounts for about 1.98% of the fund's total assets, followed by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC - Free Report) and L3harris Technologies Inc (LHX - Free Report) .

RGI's top 10 holdings account for about 17.64% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -8.78% and is down about -5.66% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/30/2022), respectively. RGI has traded between $167.54 and $200.30 during this last 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 1.17 and standard deviation of 26.67% for the trailing three-year period, which makes RGI a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 75 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

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

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 $4.21 billion in assets, Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $14.07 billion. VIS has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLI 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 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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