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

If you're interested in broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market, look no further than the VanEck Retail ETF (RTH), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 12/20/2011.

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. 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 $213.79 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

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

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 0.83%.

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 55.90% of the portfolio. Consumer Staples and Healthcare round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) accounts for about 18.08% of total assets, followed by Walmart Inc (WMT) and Costco Wholesale Corp (COST).

The top 10 holdings account for about 72.42% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, RTH has lost about -6.82%, and is up roughly 2.51% in the last one year (as of 04/09/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $196.07 and $242.36.

The ETF has a beta of 0.95 and standard deviation of 17.75% 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 carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, RTH is a sufficient option for those seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY) tracks EQM Online Retail Index and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) tracks S&P Retail Select Industry Index. Amplify Online Retail ETF has $132.83 million in assets, SPDR S&P Retail ETF has $338.25 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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