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?
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.
A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.
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.
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
Managed by Invesco, EQWL has amassed assets over $1.81 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Blend. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the Russell Top 200 Equal Weight Index.
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
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for EQWL are 0.25%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 1.68%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.
For EQWL, it has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector --about 18.3% of the portfolio --while Financials and Healthcare round out the top three.
Taking into account individual holdings, Oracle Corp (ORCL) accounts for about 1.31% of the fund's total assets, followed by Broadcom Inc (AVGO) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD).
EQWL's top 10 holdings account for about 11.89% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added about 13.16% and is up roughly 10.74% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 11/20/2025), respectively. EQWL has traded between $91.62 and $117.98 during this last 52-week period.
EQWL has a beta of 0.94 and standard deviation of 13.50% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the 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.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) tracks S&P 500 Index and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) tracks S&P 500 Index. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $707.15 billion in assets, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has $778.8 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% 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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