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Is Invesco Water Resources ETF (PHO) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Invesco Water Resources ETF (PHO - Free Report) was launched on 12/06/2005, 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?

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.

Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.

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.

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 sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $1.73 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Industrials ETFs. Before fees and expenses, this particular fund seeks to match the performance of the NASDAQ OMX US Water Index.

The NASDAQ OMX US Water Index tracks the performance of US exchange-listed companies that create products designed to conserve and purify water for homes, businesses and industries.

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.

With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.59%.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.56%.

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.

PHO's heaviest allocation is in the Industrials sector, which is about 53% of the portfolio. Its Utilities and Healthcare round out the top three.

When you look at individual holdings, Ecolab Inc (ECL - Free Report) accounts for about 8.31% of the fund's total assets, followed by Roper Technologies Inc (ROP - Free Report) and Xylem Inc/ny (XYL - Free Report) .

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 60.42% of PHO's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, PHO has added roughly 0.95%, and is up about 3% in the last one year (as of 04/26/2023). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $43.41 and $55.50.

The fund has a beta of 0.96 and standard deviation of 20.84% for the trailing three-year period, which makes PHO a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 38 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco Water Resources ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

Invesco S&P Global Water Index ETF (CGW - Free Report) tracks S&P GLOBAL WATER INDEX and the First Trust Water ETF (FIW - Free Report) tracks ISE Clean Edge Water Index. Invesco S&P Global Water Index ETF has $971 million in assets, First Trust Water ETF has $1.27 billion. CGW has an expense ratio of 0.57% and FIW charges 0.53%.

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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