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Is Invesco FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets ETF (PXH) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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A smart beta exchange traded fund, the Invesco FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets ETF (PXH - Free Report) debuted on 09/27/2007, and offers broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market 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.

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.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

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

PXH is managed by Invesco, and this fund has amassed over $1.22 billion, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. Before fees and expenses, PXH seeks to match the performance of the FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Index.

The FTSE RAFI Emerging Index is designed to track the performance of the emerging market stocks with the highest ranking cumulative score, selected from the constituents of the FTSE Emerging Large/Mid Cap Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.49%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 4.44%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Looking at individual holdings, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd accounts for about 5.06% of total assets, followed by Petroleo Brasileiro Sa (PETR4) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BK6YZP5).

The top 10 holdings account for about 23.74% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 2.22% and it's up approximately 12.04% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 03/29/2024), respectively. PXH has traded between $17.24 and $19.82 during this last 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 0.76 and standard deviation of 17.09% for the trailing three-year period, which makes PXH a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 414 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Broad Emerging Market ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO - Free Report) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG - Free Report) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has $75.75 billion in assets, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $76.23 billion. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.08% and IEMG 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 Broad Emerging Market 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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