As for being a March Madness play, PBS has proven to be a winner. Even when stripping out the 22.4% gain in 2009 because that was the year stocks bottomed after the financial crisis, PBS has performed admirably from the start of March through the trading of the NCAA championship game. An average gain in that period of 0.6% in 2011 and 2012 is sandwiched by a 2010 gain of 9.5% and a 2013 pop of 5.6%.
Obviously important to the credibility of PBS as March Madness play are the ETF’s constituents. PBS is not an actively managed ETF, but some of the Intellidex indices tracked by PowerShares ETFs have shown a tendency to make noticeable alterations at their quarterly rebalances.
PBS was last rebalanced in February and the ETF now features Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), parent company of ESPN, and CBS (NYSE: CBS), the network that broadcasts the title game, among its top-10 holdings. Dish Network (NasdaqGS: DISH) and DirecTV (NasdaqGS: DTV) are also top-10 holdings in PBS. Combined , those four stocks represent over 20% of the ETF’s weight, according to PowerShares data.
PowerShares Dynamic Media Portfolio
