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Should You Invest in the Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (PPA)?

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If you're interested in broad exposure to the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market, look no further than the Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (PPA - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 10/26/2005.

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they 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 2, placing it in top 13%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $3.70 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

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining 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 0.57%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector--about 92.90% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT - Free Report) accounts for about 7.69% of total assets, followed by Rtx Corp (RTX - Free Report) and General Electric Co (GE - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 54.81% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added about 20.46% and is up about 33.89% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 08/20/2024), respectively. PPA has traded between $78.19 and $110.76 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.92 and standard deviation of 17.32% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 55 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.

SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR - Free Report) tracks S&P Aerospace & Defense Select Industry Index and the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA - Free Report) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index. SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF has $2.28 billion in assets, iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF has $6.58 billion. XAR has an expense ratio of 0.35% and ITA charges 0.40%.

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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