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Should You Invest in the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF (RYF)?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market? You should consider the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 11/01/2006.

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 - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 8, placing it in top 50%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $254.41 M, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market. RYF seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials Index is an unmanaged equal weighted version of the S&P 500 Financials Index that consists of the common stocks of the following industries: banks, diversified financials, brokerage, asset manage-ment insurance and real estate, including investment trusts that comprise the Financials sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.40%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.19%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer a 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.

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

Looking at individual holdings, Progressive Corp/the (PGR - Free Report) accounts for about 1.64% of total assets, followed by Marketaxess Holdings Inc (MKTX - Free Report) and Cme Group Inc (CME - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 16.10% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 20.45% and is up about 6.62% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 10/17/2019), respectively. RYF has traded between $34.13 and $45.22 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.13 and standard deviation of 16.14% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 67 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, RYF is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Financials ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Financials 25/50 Index and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF - Free Report) tracks Financial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Financials ETF has $7.15 B in assets, Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund has $22.89 B. VFH has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLF charges 0.13%.

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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