A smart beta exchange traded fund, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF (RYH) debuted on 11/01/2006, and offers broad exposure to the Health Care ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
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.
On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies–popularly known as smart beta.
These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.
Even though this space provides many choices to investors–think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting–not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Invesco. RYH has been able to amass assets over $867.68 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Health Care ETFs. RYH seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care Index before fees and expenses.
The S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care Index equally weights stocks in the health care 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.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.40% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.67%.
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.
RYH’s heaviest allocation is in the Healthcare sector, which is about 100% of the portfolio.
Taking into account individual holdings, Organon & Co (OGN) accounts for about 2.11% of the fund’s total assets, followed by Cerner Corp (CERN) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY).
The top 10 holdings account for about 18.82% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF has lost about -14.51% so far, and is down about -4.29% over the last 12 months (as of 05/10/2022). RYH has traded between $271.15 and $321.86 in this past 52-week period.
The fund has a beta of 0.89 and standard deviation of 21.80% for the trailing three-year period, which makes RYH a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 66 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care 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.
Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) tracks Health Care Select Sector Index. Vanguard Health Care ETF has $15.39 billion in assets, Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF has $35.77 billion. VHT has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLV charges 0.10%.
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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