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

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Making its debut on 11/01/2006, smart beta exchange traded fund Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF (RSPN - 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.

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.

Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Invesco, and has been able to amass over $546.32 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Industrials ETFs. Before fees and expenses, this particular fund seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 EQUAL WEIGHT INDUSTRIALS INDEX .

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials Index equally weights stocks in the industrials sector of the S&P 500 Index.

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 one of the cheaper products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.40%.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 1.12%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk, but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Representing 100% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Industrials sector.

Taking into account individual holdings, Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC - Free Report) accounts for about 1.51% of the fund's total assets, followed by General Dynamics Corp (GD - Free Report) and L3harris Technologies Inc (LHX - Free Report) .

RSPN's top 10 holdings account for about 14.36% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF has gained about 8.88% so far, and was up about 5.63% over the last 12 months (as of 11/14/2023). RSPN has traded between $35.31 and $41.91 in this past 52-week period.

RSPN has a beta of 1.16 and standard deviation of 18.69% for the trailing three-year period. With about 78 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials 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.

Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Industrials 25/50 Index and the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLI - Free Report) tracks Industrial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Industrials ETF has $3.80 billion in assets, Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $14.10 billion. VIS has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLI 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 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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