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

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

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.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

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.

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.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

Managed by Invesco, RPG has amassed assets over $1.30 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Growth. RPG, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 Pure Growth Index.

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

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.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.35% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.31%.

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.

RPG's heaviest allocation is in the Industrials sector, which is about 24.40% of the portfolio. Its Consumer Discretionary and Information Technology round out the top three.

When you look at individual holdings, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL) accounts for about 2.33% of the fund's total assets, followed by United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH).

The top 10 holdings account for about 20.61% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, RPG has lost about -17.70%, and is down about -4.88% in the last one year (as of 04/07/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $33.42 and $45.03.

RPG has a beta of 1.16 and standard deviation of 23.23% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 90 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Growth segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index and the Invesco QQQ (QQQ) tracks NASDAQ-100 Index. Vanguard Growth ETF has $132.49 billion in assets, Invesco QQQ has $272.50 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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