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Is Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF (RSPU) 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 Utilities ETF (RSPU - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the 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.

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.

This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix of such characteristics.

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

Because the fund has amassed over $274.68 million, this makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs. RSPU is managed by Invesco. 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

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%.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.69%.

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 Utilities sector.

Taking into account individual holdings, Nrg Energy Inc (NRG - Free Report) accounts for about 3.67% of the fund's total assets, followed by Constellation Energy Corp (CEG - Free Report) and Aes Corp/the (AES - Free Report) .

RSPU's top 10 holdings account for about 34.52% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added roughly 11.24% so far this year and it's up approximately 14.77% in the last one year (as of 05/28/2024). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $48.19 and $61.82.

RSPU has a beta of 0.60 and standard deviation of 17.75% 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 a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could 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 $5.59 billion in assets, Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF has $13.26 billion. VPU has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLU 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 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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