Pets, Not Politics: Petco Shares and the PAWZ ETF Surge
Americans are more focused than ever on lavishing love on their furry companions.
On Thursday, shares of Petco Health and Wellness Company rocketed by about 50% in their first trading day on the New York Stock Exchange, underscoring the move toward investing in the pandemic-fueled pet care industry.
Petco opened at $26, after being priced at $18, to rise by about $816.5 million. The pet care company is trading under the ticker symbol WOOF.
This is not the first time Petco went public. The San Diego-based pet supply retailer was founded in 1965, and was traded publicly in 1994, but taken private when its ownership changed hands. The company currently has about 1,470 stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including more than 100 in-store veterinary hospitals.
SMDV, a dividend spin on the Russell 2000, the benchmark U.S. small cap index, tracks the Russell 2000 Dividend Growth Index, which includes small cap firms with dividend increase streaks of at least a decade.
“Small-cap stocks have historically outperformed large caps after significant market declines like the one we saw in early 2020. According to Morningstar, while small caps have outperformed since the lows in late March, the rally thus far has been led by low-quality stocks the stocks of companies in the lowest quintile of return on equity in the Russell 2000 a dynamic that may not be sustainable,” according to ProShares research.
January 15, 2021
ETF investors can uncover some of the latest investing themes by looking closely at fund flows. ETF issuer DWS is enjoying strong inflows in areas such as ESG, high yield, and China A-Shares investing.
Here are the top three:
MSCI USA ESG Leaders Equity ETF (USSG): USSG was developed in collaboration with Ilmarinen, Finland’s largest pension insurance company. The underlying MSCI USA ESG Leaders Index provides exposure to large- and medium-cap U.S. companies with high ESG performance relative to their sector peers.
USSG includes companies that score in the top 50% of scores in each sector and so will own about half as many companies as the parent index then weights those stocks to keep the sector allocation in line with the parent index. The fund excludes companies involved in alcohol, tobacco, gambling, controversial and conventional weapons, nuclear power, and civilian firearms.
Pacer ETFs Launches New Roster of SOS ETFs in Partnership with Swan
In December, Pacer ETFs announced their new Structured Outcome Strategies (SOS) fund family: The
Pacer Swan SOS ETF Series. With this hedged equity suite, there will be a deeper roster of risk-managed ETF offerings for issuers.
Pacer has partnered with Swan Global Management, LLC, which will act as the sub-advisor for the fund family to help pull this off. The Pacer Swan SOS ETF Series seeks to match returns of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) Trust up to a predetermined cap on the upside while also offering investors a buffer against market decline to a predetermined point.