DENVER, Colo., Sept. 22, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - The Barron's 400 ETF (NYSE Arca: BFOR), which seeks to track the Barron's 400 Index, has completed its semi-annual rebalance based on the reconstitution of its underlying benchmark.
Financial companies showed the biggest increase in sector representation, and now account for 20.00% of the index and its largest representation by sector. Consumer Discretionary and Industrials, at 18.25% and 18.00% respectively, are the two sectors with the next largest representations. Materials companies underwent the largest reduction and now represent 4% of the index.
Some of the more prominent additions to the Barron's 400 Index (B400) were Dollar General, Coca Cola Enterprises, Wells Fargo, Blackstone Group and Lowes.
Since B400 is equally weighted at the beginning of each rebalance period, each new company added, along with all remaining components from the prior period, will represent 0.25% of the index.
Some of the more prominent deletions included Oracle, Visa, United Parcel Service, Intuitive Surgical and eBay.
"The Barron's 400 Index strives to consistently select the public companies in the United States that have superior fundamental attributes," said Carlos Diez, MarketGrader's president and founder. "Our adherence to a consistent growth-at-a-reasonable price selection strategy is a hallmark of B400's ongoing results."
Following the rebalance after the close of trading on Friday, September 19, 2014, the average float-adjusted market cap of B400 was $18.12 billion and the mean float-adjusted market cap was $3.43 billion.
The turnover rate of 39.75% was slightly below the historic average for B400.
There were 48 companies selected to the index for the first time, including Kansas City Southern, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, St. Joe Co., W.R. Berkeley and Hanover Insurance.
Among current index constituents, the companies with the most selections to B400 since its inception are Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Bed, Bath & Beyond and IBM. A total of 20 companies have been selected to the B400 for at least five years in a row.
MarketGrader uses 24 proprietary measures of growth, value, profitability and cash flow to grade nearly all investable U.S. stocks the underlying index from which B400 is selected.
Based on MarketGrader's exclusive rating system, all stocks in the underlying universe are assigned a grade on a scale of 0-100. The average overall grade in the B400 is 69.4 and the mean overall grade is 68.3.
By market cap, 200 of the current components are mid-cap stocks, 112 are large-caps and 88 are small-caps. The rebalance trimmed the total of large and small caps while adding to the number mid-caps.
Barron's 400 Rebalance Sector Rotation as of 4:01 pm on September 19, 2014
(Number of stocks, with prior number, and percentage change in parentheses)
- Financials -- 80 companies now vs. 67 prior (+19.40%)
- Consumer Discretionary – 73 vs. 79 (-7.59%)
- Industrials -- 72 vs. 76 (-5.26%)
- Technology -- 61 vs. 62 (-1.61%)
- Energy -- 39 vs. 34 (+14.71%)
- Health Care -- 34 vs. 29 (+17.24%)
- Consumer Staples – 22 vs. 24 (-8.33%)
- Materials – 16 vs. 27 (-40.74%)
- Telecom – 2 vs. 1 (+100%)
- Utilities – 1 vs. 0 (+100%)
The rules-based B400, an equal-weighted index, was jointly developed by Barron's, one of the nation's leading financial news publishers, and MarketGrader, a stock research firm.
For more information about the Barron's 400 ETF (BFOR), under the ALPS trust, please visit http://www.barrons400etf.com.
About ALPS
ALPS provides customized asset servicing and asset gathering solutions to the financial services community through an entrepreneurial culture based on the commitment to "Do Things Right." Founded in 1985, ALPS continues to actively promote all of its various business segments, from asset servicing through ALPS Fund Services, Inc. to asset gathering through ALPS Portfolio Solutions Distributor, Inc., ALPS Distributors, Inc. and ALPS Advisors, Inc. Headquartered in Denver, with offices in Boston, New York, Seattle, and Toronto, ALPS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DST Systems, Inc., today represents more than 400 employees, over 200 clients, and an executive team that has been in place for more than 18 years. For more information about ALPS and its services, visit http://www.alpsinc.com. Information about ALPS products is available at http://www.alpsfunds.com.
Important Disclosures
An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus, which contains this and other information, call 1.855.724.0450 or visit http://www.barrons400etf.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.
There are risks involved with investing in ETFs including the loss of money. Additional information regarding the risks of this investment is available in the risks section of the prospectus.
Barron's 400SM ETF shares are not individually redeemable. Investors buy and sell shares of the Barron's 400SM ETF on a secondary market. Only market makers or "authorized participants" may trade directly with the Fund, typically in blocks of 50,000 shares.
ALPS Portfolio Solutions Distributor, Inc., 1290 Broadway, Ste. 1100, Denver, CO 80203 is the distributor for the Barron's 400SM ETF.
"The Barron's 400 IndexSM" is calculated by NYSE Euronext or its affiliates and published by MarketGrader. "Barron's®," "Barron's 400SM" and "Barron's 400 IndexSM" are trademarks or service marks of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. or its affiliates and have been licensed to MarketGrader. One cannot invest directly in an index.
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