CFRA Research

With factors such as growth and momentum shining this year, it is not surprising that some dividend-oriented strategies and exchange traded funds are lagging. While the S&P 500 is up more than 8 percent year to date, the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSE: SDY) and the ProShares S&P 500...

Among the certainties on Wall Street are the following: Hedge funds usually carry high fees while exchange-traded funds usually carry low fees. Some ETFs grant investors exposure to hedge fund strategies or stocks held by hedge funds without the punitive often found in the hedge fund space. For...

One of the better performing corners of the consumer discretionary sector this year are homebuilders stocks. For example, the iShares Dow Jones US Home Const. (ETF) (NYSE: ITB) is up 15.3 percent, more than double the year-to-date returns offered by the Consumer Discretionary SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLY...

Rewind back to late 2016 and early 2017 and it is easy to find a slew of articles speculating that 2017 would be the year of stock pickers and that active managers would bounce back against passive products, such as exchange traded funds. Sure, there are nine months remaining in 2017, perhaps...

After several years of lagging the United States and other major developed markets, European stocks and the related exchange-traded funds look to be awakening from that slumber. With investors clamoring for value plays outside the United States, the resurgence of Europe ETFs is looking well-timed....

There are times, particularly when it comes to individual stocks, when analyst ratings do not do investors much good. Some sell-side analysts put a buy rating on a stock after it has surged and could be overvalued. Likewise, there have been instances of analysts letting stocks incur significant...

Although interest rates in many developed markets remain low, and in some cases negative, investors continue to look for somewhere to stash their cash, regardless of anemic interest rates. Resultantly, bond funds continue to thrive. One overlooked bond investment option some individuals might want...

When it comes to sector-level bets on rising interest rates, many investors believe the best place to go is to financial services. Indeed, the second-largest sector weight in the S&P 500 is home to some industries that are positively correlated to rising Treasury yields. Insurance providers and...

A common criticism of sell-side equity analysts is that some on Wall Street wax bullish when stocks in their coverage universe are trading near new highs and turn bearish when those stocks make new lows. Said another way, some analysts' forecasts are not always predictive or profitable for...

More than 250 exchange-traded funds launched last year, marking another banner year of new product introductions from the ETF industry. However, as is often par for the course with any year's new ETF launches, not all of 2016's rookie ETFs are finding rapid success. Nor are all of last year...

Last year, the value factor snapped its skid against its growth counterpart in significant fashion, but some growth exchange-traded funds were still able to accumulate new assets. “Large-cap growth mutual funds had $56 billion of net outflows in 2016 with four portfolios shedding $3 billion...

The value factor was vindicated last year after lagging its growth counterpart for a substantial part of the current bull market. Just look at the iShares S&P 500 Value Index (ETF) (NYSE: IVE) and the Vanguard Value ETF (NYSE: VTV). IVE and VTV, two of the largest exchange-traded funds...

With news of the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike of 2016 and just its second in the past decade, 10-year Treasury yields closed at 2.52 percent Wednesday. While that may appear to be a remarkable rise off the less than 1.4 percent seen in early July, there remain fixed income assets...

The post-election ebullience surrounding the industrial sector, the fifth-largest sector weight in the S&P 500, has been well-documented. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLI), the largest industrial exchange-traded fund by assets, is up more than 11 percent over the past month,...

Underscoring this year's renaissance in cyclical sectors, the Materials Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLB) is up more than 15 percent, a showing that is good for third among the sector SPDR exchange-traded funds. The two SPDRs outpacing XLB this year are cyclical funds, those tracking the energy...