In 2013, PKW outpaced eight of its top-10 holdings, a group that combines for about 38% of the ETF’s weight. The outliers were Twenty-First Century Fox (NasdaqGM: FOX-A) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA-B). Overall, just nine of PKW’s holdings with a weight of at least 1% beat the ETF in 2013 while14 lagged the fund. The laggards group includes noteworthy names such as Amgen (NasdaqGM: AMGN), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL).
Utilities is the only one of the 10 GICS sectors not represented in PKW. Across the nine other sectors, only PKW’s largest staples and industrial holdings, Kroger (NYSE: KR) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC), beat the ETF last year. With the other seven sectors, investors would have had to go down to PKW’s second- or third-largest holdings to find a stock that outpaced the ETF.
Data also suggest PKW is delivering better returns than some of the largest share repurchasers currently not found in its lineup. In the third quarter, the five largest buybacks in dollar terms were conducted by Apple, Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Qualcomm (NasdaqGM: QCOM) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Only Apple has outperformed PKW over that time.
PowerShares Buyback Achievers Portfolio
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of Apple and Pfizer.