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Is Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF (RCD) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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

Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well for investors who believe in market efficiency.

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.

This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

Managed by Invesco, RCD has amassed assets over $590.96 million, making it one of the largest ETFs in the Consumer Discretionary ETFs. Before fees and expenses, RCD seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary Index.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary Index equally weights stocks in the consumer discretionary 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.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.40% for RCD, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.95%.

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.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector - about 100% of the portfolio.

When you look at individual holdings, Dr Horton Inc (DHI - Free Report) accounts for about 1.92% of the fund's total assets, followed by Pultegroup Inc (PHM - Free Report) and Lennar Corp (LEN - Free Report) .

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 16.91% of RCD's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added about 4.30% and is down about -2.73% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 03/15/2023), respectively. RCD has traded between $104.82 and $140.93 during this last 52-week period.

RCD has a beta of 1.33 and standard deviation of 31.51% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 58 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

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

Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY - Free Report) tracks Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index. Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF has $3.98 billion in assets, Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF has $13.52 billion. VCR has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLY 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 Consumer Discretionary 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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