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

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Financials ETFs category of the market, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF (RSPF - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 11/01/2006.

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 work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide 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.

By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.

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. RSPF has been able to amass assets over $246.35 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Financials ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 EQUAL WEIGHT FINANCIALS INDEX before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials Index equally weights stocks in the financial 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 on par with most peer products in the space.

RSPF's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 2.24%.

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.

For RSPF, it has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector --about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Allstate Corp/the (ALL - Free Report) accounts for about 1.54% of total assets, followed by Cboe Global Markets Inc (CBOE - Free Report) and Arch Capital Group Ltd (ACGL - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 15.12% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 6.54% and it's up approximately 0% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 11/24/2023), respectively. RSPF has traded between $48.10 and $54.83 during this last 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 1.08. With about 73 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

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

Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Financials 25/50 Index and the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF - Free Report) tracks Financial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Financials ETF has $7.93 billion in assets, Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $30.94 billion. VFH has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLF 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 Financials 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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