The U.S. is leading ETF industry growth. At the end of April, U.S.-listed exchange traded products had a combined $2.132 trillion in AUM, up from $2 trillion at the end of last year, according to ETFGI. [U.S. ETFs hit $2 Trillion in AUM]
Of course, industry growth should reward the share prices of ETF issuers as Brown points out.
“The implication is that the asset management firms with compelling products for these growth opportunities (WisdomTree, BlackRock, Invesco) will disproportionately reward their shareholders as The Street prizes average fee growth over average AUM growth,” he notes.
Over the past two years, shares of WisdomTree (NasdaqGS: WETF), the fifth-largest U.S. ETF issuer are up almost 75%. BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), parent company of iShares, the world’s largest ETF issuer, is up 26.3%. The Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLF) is up 23.8% over the same period.
Chart Courtesy: ETFGI