Is SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF a Strong ETF Right Now?

Launched on 06/19/2006, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF KRE is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Financials ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.

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.

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

The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $3.25 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs in the Financials ETFs. Before fees and expenses, this particular fund seeks to match the performance of the S&P Regional Banks Select Industry Index.

The S&P Regional Banks Select Industry Index represents the regional banks segment of the S&P Total Market 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 KRE, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 2.79%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For KRE, it has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector --about 100% of the portfolio.

When you look at individual holdings, Western Alliance Bancorp WAL accounts for about 2.46% of the fund's total assets, followed by Columbia Banking System Inc COLB and Valley National Bancorp VLY.

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 22.73% of KRE's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, KRE has added roughly 9.31%, and was up about 32.96% in the last one year (as of 09/17/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $38.57 and $59.23.

The fund has a beta of 1.07 and standard deviation of 30.92% for the trailing three-year period, which makes KRE a high risk choice in this particular space. With about 143 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF is not a suitable option for investors seeking to outperform the Financials ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are other ETFs in the space which investors should consider.

Invesco KBW Regional Banking ETF KBWR tracks KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index and the iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF IAT tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Regional Banks Index. Invesco KBW Regional Banking ETF has $52.29 million in assets, iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF has $640.56 million. KBWR has an expense ratio of 0.35% and IAT charges 0.40%.

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.

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