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Is Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP - Free Report) was launched on 06/23/2005, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer 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.

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.

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.

Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other 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, and has been able to amass over $283.63 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Health Care ETFs. PJP, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the Dynamic Pharmaceutical Intellidex Index.

The Dynamic Pharmaceutical Intellidex Index is comprised of stocks of U.S. pharmaceutical companies. It is designed to provide capital appreciation by thoroughly evaluating companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including fundamental growth, stock valuation, investment timeliness and risk factors.

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 0.57% for PJP, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.89%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For PJP, it has heaviest allocation in the Healthcare sector --about 100% of the portfolio.

Taking into account individual holdings, Abbott Laboratories (ABT - Free Report) accounts for about 5.61% of the fund's total assets, followed by Abbvie Inc (ABBV - Free Report) and Pfizer Inc (PFE - Free Report) .

PJP's top 10 holdings account for about 51.24% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, PJP return is roughly 15.16%, and it's up approximately 27.76% in the last one year (as of 10/31/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $68.23 and $89.33.

The fund has a beta of 0.58 and standard deviation of 15.52% for the trailing three-year period, which makes PJP a high risk choice in this particular space. With about 27 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

IShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF (IHE - Free Report) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Pharmaceuticals Index and the VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF (PPH - Free Report) tracks MVIS US Listed Pharmaceutical 25 Index. IShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF has $629.43 million in assets, VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF has $677.16 million. IHE has an expense ratio of 0.39% and PPH charges 0.36%.

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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