Weakness in ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF's Process and People Pillar ratings limits this strategy to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Negative. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy receives a Below Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in liquidity exposure and an underweight in quality exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And a low quality exposure is rooted in stocks with higher financial leverage and lower profitability. The team managing this passive strategy earns a Below Average People Pillar rating. Although this strategy's parent firm still has a way to go to be a high-quality steward, it has bright spots like significant personal investments from managers but could focus on a cohort of unseasoned portfolio managers. As a result, the firm obtains a Low Parent Pillar.

Analyst Rating

Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings Inc

Viking Therapeutics

Vaxcyte

Revolution Medicines

Alpine Immune Sciences

Alkermes

Axsome Therapeutics

Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc

SpringWorks Therapeutics Inc

Xenon Pharmaceuticals

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. ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. The process is strengthened by tracking 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. However, the rating is limited by the fund's mediocre long-term risk-adjusted performance. This can be seen in its five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process has struggled over that period. The parent firm's five-year retention rate of 62% also holds the process back.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is:  The investment seeks investment results that correspond (before fees and expenses) generally to the performance of its underlying index and the S-Network® Medical Breakthroughs Index.  The fund employs a "passive management" - or indexing - investment approach designed to track the performance of the underlying index. It will normally invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities that comprise the underlying index. The underlying index is comprised of small and mid-cap stocks of biotechnology companies that have one or more drugs in either Phase II or Phase III of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trials. 

 The portfolio has allocations in its top two sectors, healthcare and financial services, that are similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are basic materials and technology; however, the allocations are similar to the category. The portfolio is composed of 98 holdings and is diversified among those holdings. In its most recent portfolio, 30.1% of the portfolio's assets were concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the category average's 38.7%. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 81% of the fund's holdings have turned over, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Below Average

Process

ALPS’s team receives a Below Average People Pillar rating. The team is strengthened by the combined average three-year excess return of each manager, which shows that the funds they manage have outperformed an average manager. However, the rating is weakened by the parent firm's five-year success ratio of 42%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median return for the period. The parent's relatively low success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup. The parent firm's five-year retention rate of 62% also holds the team back.

People

ALPS has a ways to go to become an industry-standard steward, resulting in a Low Parent Pillar rating. Despite the negative rating, an area of strength of the firm is manager investment.  Over 34% of the firm's assets are covered by invested managers, in an effort to align portfolio manager and shareholder interests. With an average asset-weighted tenure of eight years among the longest-tenured managers at ALPS, the firm is on par with peers. Seasoned teams tend to have more experience to draw upon should they need to weather turbulent market conditions. The firm charges fees on its open-end and exchange-traded funds that are on par with category peers. On average, fund fees on its products fall in the middle quintile, giving it neither an advantage nor disadvantage compared with the competition.

Parent

ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF

SBIO tracks, a market-cap weighted index comprising US-listed biotech companies with one or more drugs currently in either Phase II or Phase III FDA clinical trials.

Biotech stocks and exchange traded funds have endured a lengthy rough patch. And the pain has been particularly acute for small- and mid-cap fare.

There Could Be Signs of Life for Biotech ETFs

First Trust US Equity Opportunities ETF

Renaissance IPO ETF

IQ Merger Arbitrage ETF

With lower interest rates now in sight and renewed confidence in the stock market, deal making activity should pick up in 2024 after a slow couple of years. For retail investors, this could lead to new opportunities to invest in emerging industries and the potential to capture early returns.

How ETF Investors Can Take Advantage of Deal Activity

Principal U.S. Small-Cap Multi-Factor Index ETF

AlphaMark Actively Managed Small Cap ETF

Motley Fool Small-Cap Growth ETF

Invesco S&P SmallCap Momentum ETF

Wall Street's newfound bullishness on small caps reflects a notable shift in market dynamics, with several analysts predicting continued growth.

Inside Small-Cap's 3-Year Best Surge in Popularity: ETFs in Focus

GraniteShares HIPS US High Income ETF

ALPS Sector Dividend Dogs ETF

VictoryShares Free Cash Flow ETF

Many of us were prepping for year-end (or on vacation in Belize, in my case) in December. However, index providers were hard at work to ensure certain ETFs fully reflected the investment criteria advisors have come to expect.

What's Now Inside Some Fundamentally Focused ETFs

Proshares S&P Kensho Cleantech ETF

VanEck Office and Commercial REIT ETF

SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF

Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF

Wall Street sizzled in December, with all three major indices touching a series of new highs.

5 Market-Beating Sector ETFs of December

With the year drawing to a closer, investors may be on the lookout for a strategy or idea that has some momentum. In a notable turnaround from earlier this year, biotech looks to be one such area to consider.

Biotech ETF SBIO's Momentum Strong to End 2023

Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF

Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF

Global X Cybersecurity ETF

Bitwise Web3 ETF

Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF

First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF

Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF

VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF

Amplify Cybersecurity ETF

iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF

iShares Cybersecurity and Tech ETF

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF

TrueShares Technology, AI and Deep Learning ETF

Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF

MUSQ Global Music Industry ETF

Defiance Quantum ETF

Robo Global Artificial Intelligence ETF

SoFi Web 3 ETF

WisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund

Wisdomtree Artificial Intelligence And Innovation Fund

To use a holiday analogy, I have been checking lists and checking them twice to figure out which of next year's top disruptive investment themes are likely to be nice.

Disruptive Tech Theme of the Week: 7 Disruptive Themes for 2024

It's been a complicated year for tech firms outside those “Magnificent Seven” names that have, to some degree, outgrown a simple “tech” distinction. High interest rates have taken a toll on tech firms.

Biotech ETF SBIO Sees Buy Signal Amid Hot Returns

Virtus LifeSci Biotech Clinical Trials ETF

Global X Blockchain ETF

US Global Jets ETF

Subversive Cannabis ETF

Roundhill Meme ETF

United States Oil Fund LP

Roundhill Cannabis ETF

The S&P 500 hit a new high for the year last week after the November jobs report and University of Michigan consumer survey data indicated a resilient economy and cooling inflation, triggering bets on a so-called soft-landing scenario.

Best-Performing ETFs of Last Week

Tech has been a big driver of market resilience this year, with AI specifically boosting earnings for all kinds of companies. That said, technology isn't just moving forward in software.

Play US Gene Treatment Approval in SBIO

Biotechnology is certainly on the list, if not at the top, of high-growth industries in dire need of a rebound. Following enthusiasm for COVID-19 vaccines in late 2020 and part of 2021, biotechnology stocks and ETFs have disappointed investors.

Innovation Could Propel Biotechnology Bounce

ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF

iShares MSCI Israel ETF

VanEck Vectors Israel ETF

AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF

Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF

Invesco Solar ETF

Strategic Crispr & Gene Editing Technology ETF

After a downbeat September, October too remained volatile for Wall Street due to higher rates.

5 ETF Areas That Spooked Investors in October

Road Town, Virgin Islands--(Newsfile Corp. - September 24, 2023) - LBank Exchange, a global digital asset trading platform, listed Vector Space Biosciences (SBIO) on September 15, 2023. For all users of LBank Exchange, the SBIO/USDT trading pair is now officially available for trading.

Vector Space Biosciences (SBIO) Is Now Available for Trading on LBank Exchange

Defiance Hotel Airline and Cruise ETF

VanEck Vectors Digital Transformation ETF

iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF

Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund

Wall Street is on track to end the second quarter on a positive note. The Nasdaq Composite Index has outperformed, gaining 10.9% since the start of April, while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones are up 6.6% and 2%, respectively.

5 Top-Performing Sector ETFs of Q2

ARK Innovation ETF

ALPS Barron's 400 ETF

With news that inflation once again cooled arriving on Tuesday, investors may be feeling more confident about a Fed rate pause. Markets have been excited by the prospect of a pause in ongoing rates for months.

3 Growth-Minded ETFs to Play Fed Rate Pause

Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF

U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF

Wall Street wrapped up a winning April buoyed by better-than-expected earnings and easing of banking fears. Cooling inflation added to the strength.

5 Sector ETFs That Beat the Market in April

Teucrium Sugar Fund

iPath Series B Bloomberg Platinum Subindex Total Return ETN

Aberdeen Standard Physical Platinum Shares ETF

iPath Series B Bloomberg Sugar Subindex Total Return ETN

April brings with it seasonal tailwinds for the equity world. Digital Assets, Sugar, Platinum, Biotech and Homebuilding were clear winners in the month.

5 Best ETF Areas of April Up At Least 10%

Global X MSCI Nigeria ETF

Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF 

GraniteShares Platinum Trust

Invesco DWA Healthcare Momentum ETF

Simplify Propel Opportunities ETF

In a somewhat surprising turn, biotech and life sciences-focused ETFs were the driving themes in the last week's top-performing ETFs, with the ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF (SBIO) leading the way with a 10% return.

ALPS' Biotech ETF SBIO Week's Top Performer

SPDR S&P Biotech ETF

Biotech comes with a great many positive externalities for society, and can be a big positive for portfolios right now.

Biotech ETFs' Performance Deserves A Look

Global X Genomics & Biotechnology ETF

iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF

Amid the trying circumstances in the market right now, investors may be well served to target the best biotech ETFs to buy. Fundamentally, these exchange-traded funds benefit from permanent relevance.

The 7 Best Biotech ETFs to Buy for Exposure to the Healthcare Sector

One of the long-running catalysts for small- and mid-sized biotechnology companies is the possibility that they'll eventually be acquired by large-cap brethren or blue-chip pharmaceutical firms. While the biotech industry's history of mergers and acquisitions is extensive, deal-making in the space has been sluggish over the past couple of years, frustrating investors in the process.

Biotech M&A Could Finally Be Ready to Rebound

Global X Longevity Thematic ETF 

VanEck Vectors Biotech ETF

Virtus LifeSci Biotech Products ETF

BlackRock Future Health ETF

Principal Healthcare Innovators Index ETF

Global X Telemedicine & Digital Health ETF

First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund

Fidelity MSCI Health Care ETF

Nasdaq Pharm Shs Nasdaq Pharmaceuticals

First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX Fund

Amplify Treatments Testing & Advancements ETF

 Franklin Genomic Advancements ETF

ROBO Global Healthcare Technology and Innovation ETF

Invesco Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF

iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF

iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF

iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF

iShares Global Healthcare ETF

iShares U.S. Healthcare ETF

Eli Lilly

Global X Longevity Thematic ETF

First Trust Indxx Medical Devices ETF

Merck

Novo Nordisk

Invesco Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome ETF

Direxion Daily Pharmaceutical & Medical Bull 3X Shares

Simplify Health Care ETF

Invesco Dynamic Pharmaceuticals ETF

VanEck Vectors Pharmaceutical ETF

Invesco S&P SmallCap Health Care ETF

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF

Vanguard Health Care ETF

Wisdomtree BioRevolution Fund

SPDR S&P Health Care Equipment ETF

SPDR S&P Health Care Services ETF

Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund

SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF

How a recession could impact health care stocks in 2023. As Covid continues, what it could mean for the health care sector.

Can Health Care Stocks Outperform Again In 2023?

ETFs offering biotech exposure are rallying on Monday, lifted by a significant M&A announcement in the industry. The ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF (SBIO) increased by 1.8% in mid-day trading on Monday.

Look to SBIO for Biotech Exposure

With technology ETFs taking in $3.2 billion over one month, compared to overall -$4 billion in YTD outflows according to YCharts, investors are looking for the right tech subsector in which to invest.

Gene Deal Adds New Dimension to Biotech ETF SBIO

The ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF (SBIO) rallied 3.66% last week, outpacing competing biotech ETFs and major U.S. indexes. The biotech sector was propelled last week by long-awaited breakthrough Alzheimer's trial data.

SBIO Rallied While Major Indexes Declined Last Week

News for ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF ETF (SBIO)