Back to top

Image: Bigstock

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

Read MoreHide Full Article

Making its debut on 12/06/2005, smart beta exchange traded fund Invesco Water Resources ETF (PHO - Free Report) provides investors 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.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta.

This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix 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

The fund is managed by Invesco. PHO has been able to amass assets over $1.67 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Industrials ETFs. Before fees and expenses, PHO 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

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.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.59%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.74%.

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.

For PHO, it has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector --about 57.10% of the portfolio --while Utilities and Information Technology round out the top three.

When you look at individual holdings, Ferguson Plc (FERG - Free Report) accounts for about 8.83% of the fund's total assets, followed by Roper Technologies Inc (ROP - Free Report) and Ecolab Inc (ECL - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 59.8% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, PHO has lost about -0.92%, and was up about 1.56% in the last one year (as of 11/01/2023). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $48.12 and $58.32.

The fund has a beta of 0.97 and standard deviation of 19.49% for the trailing three-year period, which makes PHO a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 40 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco Water Resources ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

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 $839.88 million in assets, First Trust Water ETF has $1.26 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.

Published in