2 New ETFs Worth A Gander

More than 250 exchange-traded funds launched last year, marking another banner year of new product introductions from the ETF industry. However, as is often par for the course with any year's new ETF launches, not all of 2016's rookie ETFs are finding rapid success. Nor are all of last year's infant ETFs worthy of investors' consideration.

Equal Weight ETFs

Some are worthy of additional attention and assets, including the Guggenheim S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF, Guggenheim ETF Trust ETF OEW, which debuted in June.

The OEW, as its name implies, tracks the S&P 100 Equal Weight Index. That benchmark is home to the same constituents as the market capitalization-weighted S&P 100 Index. The iShares S&P 100 ETF (ETF) OEF tracks the cap-weighted S&P 100.

Guggenheim has a rich tradition of offering equal-weight ETFs that outpace their cap-weighted counterparts, including the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF RSP. For now at least, that tradition is continuing with OEF. OEF is up 10.3 percent since coming to market compared to 7.8 percent for OEF over that same period.

“Guggenheim S&P 100 Equal Weight (OEW) tracks an index of the 100 largest companies in the more prominent S&P 500. Similar to other Guggenheim ETFs, OEW’s holdings such as Apple Inc. AAPL and QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM are rebalanced to a similar size on a quarterly basis. Relative to its more established sibling Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight (RSP), OEW has more consumer staples (12 percent vs. 7 percent) and less exposure to utilities (4 percent vs. 6 percent),” said CFRA Research in a note out Thursday.

Another Successful New ETF

The Vanguard International Dividend Appreciation ETF VIGI is easily one of 2016's most successful new ETF's as the international equivalent of the largest U.S. dividend ETF was home to over $244 million in assets under management at the end of the fourth quarter.

VIGI “emphasizes stocks exhibiting dividend growth and seeks to track the Nasdaq International Dividend Achievers Select Index, which comprises more than 200 all-cap developed and emerging markets stocks with a track record of increasing annual dividend payments,” according to Vanguard.

“VIGI ranks favorably to CFRA for its high exposure to companies with strong S&P Capital IQ Quality Rankings, such as Naspers Limited (ADR) NPSNY, Roche Holding Ltd. (ADR) RHHBY and Sanofi SA (ADR) SNY. In addition, we like bullish technical trends and modest 0.25 percent net expense ratio. VIGI launched in March 2016,” said CFRA.

CFRA has Overweight ratings on OEW and VIGI.