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Should You Invest in the Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Financials - Banking segment of the equity market, the Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 11/01/2011.

Passively managed ETFs are becoming increasingly popular with institutional as well as retail investors due to their low cost, transparency, flexibility and tax efficiency. They are excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Financials - Banking is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 7, placing it in top 44%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $1.59 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Banking segment of the equity market. KBWB seeks to match the performance of the KBW Nasdaq Bank index before fees and expenses.

The KBW Nasdaq Bank index is a modified-market capitalization-weighted index that seeks to reflect the performance of companies that do business as banks or thrifts that are publicly-traded in the US.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.35%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 3.26%.

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.

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

Looking at individual holdings, Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) accounts for about 8.14% of total assets, followed by Wells Fargo & Co (WFC - Free Report) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc/the (GS - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 59.76% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, KBWB has lost about -1.91%, and is down about -9.76% in the last one year (as of 01/16/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $36.74 and $59.12.

The ETF has a beta of 1.23 and standard deviation of 28.37% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 26 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco KBW Bank ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. KBWB, then, is not a great choice for investors seeking exposure to the Financials ETFs segment of the market. However, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.

First Trust NASDAQ Bank ETF (FTXO - Free Report) tracks Nasdaq US Smart Banks Index and the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE - Free Report) tracks S&P Banks Select Industry Index. First Trust NASDAQ Bank ETF has $134.56 million in assets, SPDR S&P Bank ETF has $2.03 billion. FTXO has an expense ratio of 0.60% and KBE charges 0.35%.

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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