ETF Spotlight on the PowerShares S&P International Developed High Beta Portfolio (NYSEArca: IDHB), part of an ongoing series.
Assets: $3.1 million
Objective: The PowerShares S&P International developed High Beta Portfolio tries to reflect the performance of the S&P BMI International Developed High Beta Index, which is comprised of 200 stocks taken from the S&P Developed ex. US and South Korea LargeMid Cap BMI Index with the highest sensitivity to market movements, or beta, over the past 12 months.
Holdings: Top holdings include Sumitomo Realty & Development 1.3%, Mitsui Fudosan Co. 1.1%, Mitsubishi Estaet Co. 0.8%, SBI Holdings Inc 0.8% and Kikkoman Corp 0.7%.
What You Should Know:
- Invesco PowerShares sponsors the fund.
- IDHB has a 0.25% expense ratio.
- The ETF has 199 holdings and the top ten make up 7.6% of the overall portfolio.
- Sector allocations include financials 32.6%, industrials 19.8%, materials 15.7%, consumer discretionary 14.5%, information technology 4.4%, utilities 3.6%, consumer staples 3.5%, health care 3.0%, energy 2.0% and telecom services 0.9%.
- Country allocations include Japan 49.5%, Sweden 8.9%, Germany 5.5%, Italy 5.0%, U.K. 4.8%, France 4.3%, Norway 4.3%, Canada 3.0%, Finland 2.9% and Spain 2.7%.
- The fund’s market-cap breakdown includes mega-caps 19.7%, large-caps 44.2%, mid-caps 35.2% and small-caps 1.0%.
- The portfolio shows a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.2.
- The ETF is up 3.5% over the past month, up 9.6% over the last three months and up 8.1% year-to-date.
- IDHB is 8.9% above its 200-day exponential moving average.
- Beta is a measure of volatility for a security, compared to the overall market, and a high beta means the security will be more volatile than the market.
- While a high-beta strategy can outperform during market rallies, potential investors should know that it can also underperform the broader market during severe turns.
- Additionally, since the fund has an average daily volume of about 8,200 shares, potential investors should utilize limit orders to better control trades.
Next page: The latest news
The Latest News:
- Despite escalating the violence in Iraq, a dovish Federal Reserve and increased merger-and-acquisition activity are helping to support the equities market, writes BlackRock’s Chief Strategist Russ Koesterich for Barron’s.
- “We continue to believe that, while bargains are few and far between, opportunities can still be found,” Koesterich said.
- Specifically, the strategists points to overseas markets as they look cheaper compared to U.S. markets where company stocks seem fully priced.
- “Outside of the United States, however, stocks look more attractive. Japanese equity valuations, for instance, are currently among the lowest in the developed world despite Japanese stocks’ recent advance,” Koesterich added. “At the same time, recent market-friendly actions by the European Central Bank could support European stocks over the next few months.”
PowerShares S&P International Developed High Beta Portfolio
For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.