Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend category of the market, the Invesco S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF (EQWL) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 12/01/2006.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.
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 sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $1.52 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Blend. EQWL seeks to match the performance of the Russell Top 200 Equal Weight Index before fees and expenses.
The S&P 100 Equal Weight Index is designed to provide equal-weighted exposure to the securities of the largest 200 companies in the US equity market.
Cost & Other Expenses
Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.
Annual operating expenses for EQWL are 0.25%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.74%.
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.
For EQWL, it has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector --about 19.2% of the portfolio --while Information Technology and Industrials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR) accounts for about 1.54% of total assets, followed by Boeing Co/the (BA) and Netflix Inc (NFLX).
EQWL's top 10 holdings account for about 12.46% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the Invesco S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF has added about 9.21% so far, and is up roughly 17.25% over the last 12 months (as of 07/14/2025). EQWL has traded between $91.62 and $111.81 in this past 52-week period.
The fund has a beta of 0.94 and standard deviation of 15.34% for the trailing three-year period, which makes EQWL a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 102 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
Invesco S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Blend segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) tracks S&P 500 Index and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) tracks S&P 500 Index. SPDR S&P 500 ETF has $643.17 billion in assets, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has $689.4 billion. SPY has an expense ratio of 0.09% and VOO changes 0.03%.
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 Blend
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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Invesco S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF (EQWL): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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