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

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend category of the market, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 04/24/2003.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

Products that are based on market cap weighted indexes, which are strategies designed to reflect a specific market segment or the market as a whole, have traditionally dominated the ETF industry.

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.

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.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

Managed by Invesco, RSP has amassed assets over $38.16 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Blend. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index equally weights the stocks in 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.

Annual operating expenses for RSP are 0.20%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.88%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Representing 15.20% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Industrials sector; Financials and Healthcare round out the top three.

Taking into account individual holdings, Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC - Free Report) accounts for about 0.23% of the fund's total assets, followed by General Dynamics Corp (GD - Free Report) and Unitedhealth Group Inc (UNH - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 2.26% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -2.68% and it's up approximately 0.82% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 10/26/2023), respectively. RSP has traded between $135.50 and $155 during this last 52-week period.

RSP has a beta of 1.06 and standard deviation of 17.75% for the trailing three-year period. With about 504 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

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

IShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV - Free Report) tracks S&P 500 Index and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY - Free Report) tracks S&P 500 Index. IShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $339.59 billion in assets, SPDR S&P 500 ETF has $386.85 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and SPY charges 0.09%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Blend.

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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