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

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The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF (RSPN - Free Report) was launched on 11/01/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Industrials 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.

Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well for investors who believe in market efficiency.

But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.

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, and has been able to amass over $675.85 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Industrials ETFs. Before fees and expenses, RSPN 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

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 0.40%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.99%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

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

Looking at individual holdings, United Rentals Inc (URI - Free Report) accounts for about 1.42% of total assets, followed by Caterpillar Inc (CAT - Free Report) and Paycom Software Inc (PAYC - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 13.56% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, RSPN has added about 6.87%, and is up about 29.32% in the last one year (as of 03/18/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $35.68 and $46.43.

The ETF has a beta of 1.14 and standard deviation of 18.21% for the trailing three-year period. With about 80 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

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 $5.03 billion in assets, Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $17.36 billion. VIS has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLI charges 0.09%.

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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