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Is Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF (RPG) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Growth category of the market, the Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF (RPG - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 03/01/2006.

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.

Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well for investors who believe in market efficiency.

But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.

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. RPG has been able to amass assets over $1.64 billion, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Growth. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Pure Growth Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Pure Growth Index measures the performance of securities that exhibit strong growth characteristics in the S&P 500 Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

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

With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.35%.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.38%.

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.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 39.40% of the portfolio. Consumer Discretionary and Industrials round out the top three.

When you look at individual holdings, Nvidia Corp (NVDA - Free Report) accounts for about 4.37% of the fund's total assets, followed by Arista Networks Inc (ANET - Free Report) and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 26.83% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 21.93% so far this year and is up about 30.62% in the last one year (as of 09/30/2024). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $29.02 and $39.31.

The fund has a beta of 1.13 and standard deviation of 23.72% for the trailing three-year period, which makes RPG a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 67 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG - Free Report) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index and the Invesco QQQ (QQQ - Free Report) tracks NASDAQ-100 Index. Vanguard Growth ETF has $138.94 billion in assets, Invesco QQQ has $296.49 billion. VUG has an expense ratio of 0.04% and QQQ charges 0.20%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Growth.

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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