Looking for broad exposure to the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market? You should consider the Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (PPA Quick QuotePPA - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on October 26, 2005.

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also 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. Industrials - Aerospace & Defense is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 9, placing it in bottom 44%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $6.87 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market. PPA seeks to match the performance of the SPADE Defense Index before fees and expenses.

The SPADE Defense Index is comprised of approximately 50 U.S. companies whose shares are listed on a U.S. Exchange. These are companies that are principally engaged in the research, development, manufacture, operation and support of defense, military, homeland security and space operations.

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 0.58%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.61%.

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.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector -- about 92.3% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Boeing Co/the (BA) accounts for about 8.34% of total assets, followed by General Electric Co (GE) and Rtx Corp (RTX).

The top 10 holdings account for about 56.44% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, PPA return is roughly 38.18%, and is up about 39.59% in the last one year (as of 11/03/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $105.2 and $159.55.

The ETF has a beta of 0.87 and standard deviation of 16.34% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 56 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, PPA is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Global X Defense Tech ETF (SHLD) tracks GLOBAL X DEFENSE TECH INDEX and the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index. Global X Defense Tech ETF has $5.22 billion in assets, iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF has $12.62 billion. SHLD has an expense ratio of 0.5%, and ITA charges 0.38%.

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.