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

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A smart beta exchange traded fund, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF (RSPU - Free Report) debuted on 11/01/2006, and offers broad exposure to the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.

A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.

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.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Invesco, and has been able to amass over $272.93 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs. RSPU seeks to match the performance of the SP 500 EQUAL WEIGHT TELECM-UTILITY INDEX before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Telecommunication Services & Utilities Index equally weights stocks found in the utilities and telecommunication services sectors of 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.

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 2.71%.

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.

RSPU's heaviest allocation is in the Utilities sector, which is about 100% of the portfolio.

When you look at individual holdings, Constellation Energy Corp (CEG - Free Report) accounts for about 3.65% of the fund's total assets, followed by Xcel Energy Inc (XEL - Free Report) and Nrg Energy Inc (NRG - Free Report) .

RSPU's top 10 holdings account for about 35.01% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF has lost about -5.88% so far, and is down about -1.22% over the last 12 months (as of 11/20/2023). RSPU has traded between $48.19 and $59.85 in this past 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 0.59 and standard deviation of 17.87% for the trailing three-year period. With about 31 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF is not a suitable option for investors seeking to outperform the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are other ETFs in the space which investors should consider.

Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Utilities 25/50 Index and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU - Free Report) tracks Utilities Select Sector Index. Vanguard Utilities ETF has $4.76 billion in assets, Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF has $13.74 billion. VPU has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLU 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 Utilities/Infrastructure 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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