Another option to consider is the far smaller PowerShares KBW Regional Banking Portfolio (NYSEArca: KBWR). That ETF has just $17.5 million in assets under management, but that diminutive stature belies the fund’s solid performance as the ETF is up 11.4% this year.
A key difference between KRE and KBWR is the latter’s heavy weight to small-caps. The ETF allocates almost 87% of its weight to small-cap growth and value names, according to PowerShares data. With that in mind, it is not surprising that KBWR’s P/E ratio of 16.63 is higher than the 14.43 found on KRE. KBWR holds 50 stocks with weights ranging from 0.93% to 3.63%. Both ETFs have annual expense ratios of 0.35%.
SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this article.