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A smart beta exchange traded fund, the Invesco S&P MidCap 400 Pure Growth ETF (RFG) debuted on 03/01/2006, and offers broad exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Products that are based on market cap weighted indexes, which are strategies designed to reflect a specific market segment or the market as a whole, have traditionally dominated the ETF industry.
Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.
However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.
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. RFG has been able to amass assets over $257.34 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth. Before fees and expenses, RFG seeks to match the performance of the S&P MidCap 400 Pure Growth Index.
The S&P MidCap 400 Pure Growth Index measures the performance of securities that exhibit strong growth characteristics in the S&P MidCap 400 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's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.37%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector - about 19.60% of the portfolio. Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare round out the top three.
Taking into account individual holdings, Shockwave Medical Inc (SWAV) accounts for about 5.72% of the fund's total assets, followed by Slm Corp (SLM) and Navient Corp (NAVI).