Finally. That could easily be the reaction of beleaguered financial services sector bulls as some bank stocks and exchange trade funds have recently started getting their respective acts together.
Yes, the Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLF) closed slightly lower last Friday, but not after the largest U.S. sector ETF touched another multi-year high during the session. XLF enters trading Monday with an August gain of nearly 4.1%. [Big Bank ETF Rallies]
Another bank ETF that has recently been on the move to the upside is the PowerShares KBW Bank Portfolio (NYSEArca: KBWB). KBWB is up nearly 3% this month. While that performance lags XLF’s, some of that can be attributed to the fact that XLF holds shares of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) while KBWB does not. [Berkshire Boosts These ETFs]
Still, KBWB offers plenty of leverage to a financial services sector rally that is being led in large part by some of the sector’s biggest names. Remember, it was Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) hitting new 52-week highs last Thursday that helped elevate XLF to its highest levels since May 2008. Those stocks combine for 16.3% of KBWB’s weight.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), KBWB’s largest holding and one of Berkshire’s largest equity stakes, is higher by nearly 1.7% this month. Overall, stocks with the large-cap value designation represent almost two-thirds of KBWP’s weight. That helps put KBWB in the sweet spot of attractive values seen across the financial services sector.
XLF shows a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.8 and a price-to-book of 1.2. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index has a P/E ratio of 17.0 and a P/B of 2.3. KBWB sports an even more compelling discount to U.S. stocks as the ETFs has a P/E ratio of 13.8 and a price-to-book ratio of 1.1. [Value in Bank ETFs]
Although KBWB features ample exposure to the largest U.S. money center banks, investors in the ETF would do well to listen closely to what the Federal Reserve is saying about interest rates. The reason being is that about half of the ETF’s 24 holdings are regional banks and that does not include the super-regionals held by the fund, such as U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and BB&T (NYSE: BBT).
KBWB has gained $7.7 million of its $237.9 million in assets under management over the past 90 days, according to PowerShares data.
PowerShares KBW Bank Portfolio
