Making its debut on 11/01/2006, smart beta exchange traded fund Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF (RSPF) provides investors broad exposure to the Financials ETFs category of the market.
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.
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.
There are some investors, though, who think it's possible to beat the market with great stock selection; this group likely invests in another class of funds known as smart beta, which track non-cap weighted strategies.
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.
This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
Managed by Invesco, RSPF has amassed assets over $291.06 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Financials ETFs. RSPF seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 EQUAL WEIGHT FINANCIALS INDEX before fees and expenses.
The S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials Index equally weights stocks in the financial sector of the S&P 500 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.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.40% for RSPF, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 1.23%.
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.
Representing 100% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Financials sector.
When you look at individual holdings, Franklin Resources Inc (BEN) accounts for about 1.57% of the fund's total assets, followed by Interactive Brokers Group Inc (IBKR) and Citizens Financial Group Inc (CFG).
Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 15.27% of RSPF's total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has lost about -3.93% so far this year and is up roughly 1.09% in the last one year (as of 02/20/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $63.23 and $80.83
The fund has a beta of 0.92 and standard deviation of 16.66% for the trailing three-year period. With about 78 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Financials ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Financials 25/50 Index and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) tracks Financial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Financials ETF has $13.05 billion in assets, State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $52.64 billion. VFH has an expense ratio of 0.09% and XLF changes 0.08%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Financials ETFs
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 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF (RSPF): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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