Back to top

Image: Bigstock

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

Read MoreHide Full Article

A smart beta exchange traded fund, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy ETF (RSPG - Free Report) debuted on 11/01/2006, and offers broad exposure to the Energy 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.

However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.

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

The fund is managed by Invesco, and has been able to amass over $616.72 million, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Energy ETFs. Before fees and expenses, RSPG seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 EQUAL WEIGHT ENERGY PLUS INDEX .

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy Plus Index equally weights stocks in the energy sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.40%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 3.03%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

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

Taking into account individual holdings, Eqt Corp (EQT - Free Report) accounts for about 4.69% of the fund's total assets, followed by Oneok Inc (OKE - Free Report) and Williams Cos Inc/the (WMB - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 45.15% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added about 11.58% and was up about 0% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 11/01/2023), respectively. RSPG has traded between $64.94 and $80.13 during this last 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 1.59. With about 24 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

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

Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Energy 25/50 Index and the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE - Free Report) tracks Energy Select Sector Index. Vanguard Energy ETF has $8.18 billion in assets, Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF has $38.32 billion. VDE has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLE 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 Energy 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.

Published in