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Should You Invest in the VanEck Retail ETF (RTH)?

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The VanEck Retail ETF (RTH - Free Report) was launched on 12/20/2011, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market.

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.

Sector ETFs also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Consumer Discretionary - Retail is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 9, placing it in bottom 44%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Van Eck. It has amassed assets over $222.60 million, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market. RTH seeks to match the performance of the MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index before fees and expenses.

The MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index tracks the overall performance of companies involved in retail distribution, wholesalers, on-line, direct mail and TV retailers, multi-line retailers, specialty retailers and food and other staples retailers.

Costs

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 0.35%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.92%.

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.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector--about 59.40% of the portfolio. Consumer Staples and Healthcare round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN - Free Report) accounts for about 18.26% of total assets, followed by Costco Wholesale Corp (COST - Free Report) and Walmart Inc (WMT - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 72.97% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, RTH has added about 15.91%, and is up about 31.17% in the last one year (as of 10/01/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $162.97 and $218.18.

The ETF has a beta of 0.88 and standard deviation of 18.22% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 27 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

VanEck Retail 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, RTH is an outstanding option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY - Free Report) tracks EQM Online Retail Index and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT - Free Report) tracks S&P Retail Select Industry Index. Amplify Online Retail ETF has $170.63 million in assets, SPDR S&P Retail ETF has $345.36 million. IBUY has an expense ratio of 0.65% and XRT charges 0.35%.

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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