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Is Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF (RYH) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF was launched on 11/01/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Health Care 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.

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

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.

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.

The smart beta space gives investors many different choices, from equal-weighting, one of the simplest strategies, to more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting. However, not all of these methodologies have been able to deliver remarkable returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Invesco, and has been able to amass over $962.30 million, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Health Care ETFs. Before fees and expenses, RYH seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care Index.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care Index equally weights stocks in the health care sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for RYH are 0.40%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.69%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk, but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Representing 100% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Healthcare sector.

When you look at individual holdings, Cardinal Health Inc (CAH - Free Report) accounts for about 1.92% of the fund's total assets, followed by Centene Corp (CNC - Free Report) and Molina Healthcare Inc (MOH - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 17.53% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF has lost about -9.71% so far, and is down about -5.99% over the last 12 months (as of 11/14/2022). RYH has traded between $249.96 and $321.86 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.88 and standard deviation of 23.08% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 65 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

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

Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV - Free Report) tracks Health Care Select Sector Index. Vanguard Health Care ETF has $16.77 billion in assets, Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF has $40.54 billion. VHT has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLV 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 Health Care 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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