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Is Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP - Free Report) was launched on 06/23/2005, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Health Care 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.

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.

This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $284.97 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Health Care ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Dynamic Pharmaceutical Intellidex Index before fees and expenses.

The Dynamic Pharmaceutical Intellidex Index is comprised of stocks of U.S. pharmaceutical companies. It is designed to provide capital appreciation by thoroughly evaluating companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including fundamental growth, stock valuation, investment timeliness and risk factors.

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.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.57%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

PJP's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 1.02%.

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.

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

When you look at individual holdings, Eli Lilly & Co (LLY) accounts for about 5% of the fund's total assets, followed by Abbvie Inc (ABBV) and Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD).

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 46.04% of PJP's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, PJP has added roughly 20.04%, and is up roughly 10.92% in the last one year (as of 11/11/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $74.59 and $98.40.

The ETF has a beta of 0.49 and standard deviation of 14.89% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 31 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers .

Alternatives

Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF (IHE) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Pharmaceuticals Index and the VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF (PPH) tracks MVIS US Listed Pharmaceutical 25 Index. iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF has $634 million in assets, VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF has $1.09 billion. IHE has an expense ratio of 0.38% and PPH changes 0.36%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Health Care 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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