Designed to provide broad exposure to the Health Care ETFs category of the market, the Invesco Biotechnology & Genome ETF (PBE) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 06/23/2005.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.
While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $366.81 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Health Care ETFs. PBE seeks to match the performance of the Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome Intellidex Index before fees and expenses.
The Dynamic Biotech & Genome Intellidex Index seeks to provide capital appreciation by thoroughly evaluating companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action, and value.
Cost & Other Expenses
For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.58%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.65%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Representing 100% of the portfolio, the fund has heaviest allocation to the Healthcare sector.
When you look at individual holdings, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX) accounts for about 4.97% of the fund's total assets, followed by Amgen Inc (AMGN) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN).
The top 10 holdings account for about 40.47% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, PBE return is roughly 15.43%, and is up roughly 44.57% in the last one year (as of 08/13/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $67.18 and $93.93.
The ETF has a beta of 0.70 and standard deviation of 19.87% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 34 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers .
Alternatives
Invesco Biotechnology & Genome ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) tracks Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the State Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) tracks S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index. iShares Biotechnology ETF has $9.95 billion in assets, State Street SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has $10.73 billion. IBB has an expense ratio of 0.44% and XBI changes 0.35%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Health Care ETFs
Bottom Line
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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Invesco Biotechnology & Genome ETF (PBE): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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