- Slow and steady value and conservative sectors are leading market gains
- RPV was best performing non-leveraged ETF across various Morningstar style categories
- Close behind was RZV, which like RPV, targets companies exhibiting a value characteristic
Since the start of the bull market, we may come to expect growth stocks like biotechnology and technology-sector exchange traded funds would outperform. However, more slow and steady value and conservative sectors led market gains.
According to a ranking of the best ETFs across the various Morningstar style categories since the current bull market started in March 2009, the Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF (NYSEArca: RPV) was the best performing non-leveraged ETF, generating an annualized return of 29.82% for the past 7-year period. RPV tracks the S&P 500 but targets companies with a value tilt.
Behind RPV, the Guggenheim S&P Smallcap 600 Pure Value ETF (NYSEArca: RZV) has returned an annualized 28.85% in the same period. RZV, like RPV, targets companies that exhibit the value characteristic but focuses on the smaller companies taken from the S&P SmallCap 600 benchmark.
The Guggenheim S&P Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF (NYSEArca: RCD) returned an average 28.5% over the past seven years. Unlike traditional market cap-weighted index funds, RCD equally weights its component holdings, so its underlying portfolio leans more toward more mid-sized companies.
While investors may not thing that the PowerShares Financial Preferred Portfolio (NYSEArca: PGF) would appear on the list, PGF’s total returns after including yields, helped the ETF generate a 28.27% average annualized return over the period. PGF shows a 5.73% 12-month yield.