Should PowerShares DWA SmallCap Momentum Portfolio (DWAS) Be on Your Investing Radar?

Looking for broad exposure to the Small Cap Blend segment of the US equity market? You should consider the PowerShares DWA SmallCap Momentum Portfolio (DWAS), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 07/19/2012.

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $301.97 M, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Small Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.

Why Small Cap Blend

There's a lot of potential to investing in small cap companies, but with market capitalization below $2 billion, that high potential comes with even higher risk.

Blend ETFs are aptly named, since they tend to hold a mix of growth and value stocks, as well as show characteristics of both kinds of equities.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.60%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.21%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Healthcare sector--about 30.20% of the portfolio. Financials and Industrials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Axogen Inc (AXGN) accounts for about 1.92% of total assets, followed by Mirati Therapeutics Inc (MRTX) and Neogen Corp (NEOG).

The top 10 holdings account for about 14.74% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

DWAS seeks to match the performance of the Dorsey Wright SmallCap Technical Leaders Index before fees and expenses. The Index Provider determines a company?s relative strength characteristics based on that company market performance. The Index Provider selects approximately 200 companies for inclusion in the Underlying Index from a small-cap universe of approximately 2,000 of the smallest U.S. companies selected from a broader set of 3,000 companies.

The ETF has gained about 14.82% so far this year and was up about 32.50% in the last one year (as of 06/15/2018). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $42.04 and $55.92.

The ETF has a beta of 1.11 and standard deviation of 18.11% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 200 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Bottom-Line

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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PWRSH-DWA SC MO (DWAS): ETF Research Reports
 
Neogen Corporation (NEOG) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (MRTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
AxoGen, Inc. (AXGN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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