An Impressive Growth Spurt For A Robotics ETF

When last we visited the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF BOTZ, it was early November. At that time, BOTZ was well on its way to becoming one of 2017's best-performing and fastest-growing exchange traded funds.

BOTZ finished 2017 with a 58-percent gain, good for one of the best performances among all non-leveraged ETFs. Investors have validated BOTZ in significant fashion. The ETF, which debuted in September 2016, topped $100 million in assets under management in June. When we examined the fund in early November, that number had surged to $1.07 billion. 

As of Jan. 26, BOTZ had $2.4 billion in assets under management, meaning the ETF more than doubled in size in little more than 60 days. 

Backing Up The Enthusiasm

It is one thing for an ETF to pack on assets. It is another thing altogether for that fund to reward investors' faith. BOTZ is at it again this year: BOTZ is already up 15.1 percent year-to-date. That is more than double the return of the S&P 500. The robotics ETF is also topping the Nasdaq-100 by more than 500 basis points.

BOTZ, which tracks the Indxx Global Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index, “enables investors to access high growth potential through companies involved in the ideation, design, creation and application of programmable automated devices,” according to Global X. 

At the end of the fourth quarter, BOTZ held 29 stocks, over 77 percent of which were Japanese and U.S. companies. Electronic equipment and health care equipment manufacturers combine for 22.6 percent.

Robot Tasks

A future growth catalyst for BOTZ and the robotics industry at large is the rise of task-specific robots.

“A growing trend in the robotics industry is the emergence of task-specific robots capable of efficiently and accurately performing a narrow function,” according to Global X research. “This can consist of one robot designed to vacuum floors, another to fold laundry and a third that solely flips burgers on a grill. For the average homeowner, having a closet of robots is an unreasonable ask.” 

Again, investors are clearly enthusiastic. Since the start of 2018, BOTZ has seen nearly $619 million in inflows.

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