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Should You Invest in the Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Healthcare - Pharma segment of the equity market, the Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/23/2005.

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

Sector ETFs also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Healthcare - Pharma is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 6, placing it in top 38%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $271.03 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Healthcare - Pharma segment of the equity market. PJP seeks to match the performance of the Dynamic Pharmaceutical Intellidex Index before fees and expenses.

The Dynamic Pharmaceutical Intellidex Index is comprised of stocks of U.S. pharmaceutical companies. It is designed to provide capital appreciation by thoroughly evaluating companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including fundamental growth, stock valuation, investment timeliness and risk factors.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.56%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.02%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

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

Looking at individual holdings, Eli Lilly & Co (LLY - Free Report) accounts for about 7.68% of total assets, followed by Amgen Inc (AMGN - Free Report) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 58.28% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, PJP has lost about -6.06%, and is up roughly 3.86% in the last one year (as of 09/25/2023). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $70.17 and $81.07.

The ETF has a beta of 0.64 and standard deviation of 16.39% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 23 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. PJP, then, is not a suitable option for investors seeking exposure to the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. However, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.

IShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF (IHE - Free Report) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Pharmaceuticals Index and the VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF (PPH - Free Report) tracks MVIS US Listed Pharmaceutical 25 Index. IShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF has $371.60 million in assets, VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF has $427.27 million. IHE has an expense ratio of 0.40% and PPH charges 0.36%.

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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