A sound investment process and strong management team underpin Invesco Intl BuyBack Achiev™ ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Silver. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the second-cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's effective investment philosophy supports an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in yield exposure and volatility exposure compared with category peers. High yield exposure is attributed to holding high dividend-paying or buyback stocks, and is suitable for income seekers outside of fixed-income. And high volatility exposure is rooted in stocks that have a higher standard deviation of returns. The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

Analyst Rating

Shell PLC

Canadian Natural Resources

Novan

UBS Group AG

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria

Suncor Energy

Alliance Data Systems

Nutrien

Nuvn PA Mun Val Shs of Benef Interest

NatWest Group plc 

Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. Invesco Intl BuyBack Achiev™ ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. 

The leading factor in the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Noteworthy risk-adjusted performance also bolsters the process. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category average, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. Lastly, the process is limited by the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 42%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. The parent's subpar success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup.

 This strategy leans toward smaller, deeper value companies compared with its average peer in the Foreign Large Blend Morningstar Category. Examining additional factor exposure, this strategy has continually had more high-yield exposure than the Morningstar Category average during recent years, with the portfolio holding more stocks with high dividend or buyback yields. Higher-yield stocks can provide steady income, but also have their risks. Dividend payers may cut payouts, for instance, if their earnings fall. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Yield factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy also has had an overweight bias to the volatility factor over these years, meaning it has owned companies that have a higher historical standard deviation of returns. Such stocks tend to rise faster and fall harder than the broad market. High-volatility exposure contributes to stronger performance during bull markets, but often at the cost of losing more during downturns. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor in the most recent month. Given the high trading volume of holdings, this fund also tilts toward liquid assets. More-liquid assets are easier to buy and sell without adversely moving their prices and tend to provide some ballast during market selloffs. They also are easier to sell to meet redemptions if a host of investors decide to leave the fund in a short period of time. In this month, the strategy also had more exposure to the Liquidity factor over its peers. More information on a fund and its respective category's factor exposure can be found in the Factor Profile module within the Portfolio section. 

 The portfolio is overweight in energy and financial services relative to the category average by 20.2 and 13.2 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and industrials, underweight the average by 9.5 and 7.6 percentage points of assets, respectively. The strategy owns 159 securities and is relatively top-heavy. Of the strategy's assets, 40.9% are concentrated within the top 10 holdings, compared to the category’s 15.4% average. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 97% of the fund's holdings have changed, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Above Average

Process

Invesco Intl BuyBack Achiev™ ETF's strong team drives the strategy's Above Average People Pillar rating. There are four managers listed on the fund: Michael Jeanette, Peter Hubbard, Tony Seisser, Pratik Doshi. Experience on the team is abundant, with 12 years of average portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of 144 strategies, with a Bronze asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, demonstrating their potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate. This group has had relatively low management turnover, providing a stable environment and continuity for the strategies. 

 Note: This People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. Morningstar analysts evaluate the People Pillar for passive products at the brand level and may also differentiate by asset class. There is at least one other passive strategy at the firm that is covered by a Morningstar analyst, so the People Pillar rating of the fund is inherited from the rating that the Morningstar analyst assigned to investment vehicles under the same brand name.

People

Invesco succeeds in a number of areas but also has its share of subpar offerings, along with many others that land somewhere in the middle. A mid-2023 change of CEO, from longtime chief Marty Flanagan to veteran Invesco executive Andrew Schlossberg, is noteworthy, and several other executives retired or departed in 2023. Portfolio-manager shuffles aimed at bolstering poor performers, which began under Flanagan, have continued under Schlossberg, who told Morningstar his most important aim is bolstering “investment quality.” However, major changes of direction or approach are unlikely. The firm retains a Morningstar Parent rating of Average. 
Invesco’s international-equity teams in Texas and New York remain solid. However, the extensive U.S.-equity lineup needs improvement. Fixed-income offerings run the gamut: The multisector and short-term-bond areas are good, but corporate high-yield is less impressive. The firm’s exchange-traded fund lineup includes the popular Nasdaq-focused QQQ; passive strategies make up around 37% of Invesco’s assets under management. Invesco has not been averse to trying new types of strategies, and it was among the firms that immediately launched a spot bitcoin ETF after SEC approval in early 2024.
The picture outside the United States is mixed. Fund performance has been subpar in Asia, and while the picture has brightened in the United Kingdom and Europe, that region still can’t be considered a strength.

Average

Parent

Invesco International BuyBack Achievers ETF

IPKW tracks a modified market-cap-weighted index of global ex-US companies that have reduced their outstanding shares by at least 5% in the past year.

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Invesco Considers Medium- and Long-Term Impacts of War

Stock buybacks were a common theme at the tail end of the bull run just before the pandemic took hold of the capital markets. ETF investors looking to capitalize on buybacks, but get international exposure at the same time can look at funds like the Invesco International BuyBack Achievers ETF (IPKW).

News for Invesco International BuyBack Achievers ETF ETF (IPKW)