KXI’s sinful exposure does not end there. Philip Morris (NYSE: PM), British American Tobacco, Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) and spirits giant Diageo (NYSE: DEO) are all top-10 holdings in KXI, combining for nearly 13% of the ETF’s weight.
As is seen with Nestle’s importance to not only KXI, but EWL, the Switzerland ETF, Anheuser-Busch InBev has played a similar role with the iShares MSCI Belgium Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EWK). The beer giant is 23% of the Belgium ETF’s weight, helping EWK to an 8.1% year-to-date gain. [Belgium ETF Shines]
If there is a knock on KXI it is valuation and that is saying something considering that the staples sector is often richly valued relative to the broader market. The ETF sports a P/E ratio of almost 21.3 and a price-to-book ratio of 5.37 compared to 18.3 and 3.9 on XLP, the largest staples ETF.
iShares Global Consumer Staples ETF
