A smart beta exchange traded fund, the Goldman Sachs Equal Weight U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF (GSEW) debuted on 09/12/2017, and offers broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.
Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well 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.
Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.
Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Goldman Sachs Funds. GSEW has been able to amass assets over $2.18 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Blend. Before fees and expenses, this particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Solactive US Large Cap Equal Weight Index.
The Solactive US Large Cap Equal Weight Index is an equal-weight version of the Solactive US Large Cap Index including equity securities of approximately 500 of the largest U.S. companies.
Cost & Other Expenses
Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.
With one of the least expensive products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.09%.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.39%.
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.
For GSEW, it has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector --about 18.2% of the portfolio --while Industrials and Financials round out the top three.
When you look at individual holdings, Everpure Inc (P) accounts for about 0.29% of the fund's total assets, followed by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Intel Corporation (INTC).
Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 2.74% of GSEW's total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, GSEW return is roughly 14.6%, and is up about 15.23% in the last one year (as of 10/23/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $81.01 and $99.30.
The fund has a beta of 0.96 and standard deviation of 13.98% for the trailing three-year period. With about 499 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
Goldman Sachs Equal Weight U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) tracks S&P 500 Index and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares (VOO) tracks S&P 500 Index. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $877.91 billion in assets, Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares has $1031.97 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VOO changes 0.03%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Blend
Bottom Line
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Goldman Sachs Equal Weight U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF (GSEW): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).