Making its debut on 01/31/2012, smart beta exchange traded fund iShares U.S. Power Infrastructure ETF (POWR) provides investors broad exposure to the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs 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.
On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta.
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.
This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
Managed by Blackrock, POWR has amassed assets over $296.15 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P US POWER INFRASTRUCTURE SELECT INDEX.
The S&P U.S. Power Infrastructure Select Index measures the performance of equity securities of U.S.-domiciled companies involved in U.S. power infrastructure.
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 on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.40%.
POWR's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 6.57%.
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.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Utilities sector - about 45% of the portfolio. Industrials and Energy round out the top three.
When you look at individual holdings, Ge Vernova Inc (GEV) accounts for about 6.4% of the fund's total assets, followed by Eaton Plc (ETN) and Nextera Energy Inc (NEE).
The top 10 holdings account for about 47.46% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, POWR has added about 20.25%, and was up about 0% in the last one year (as of 05/06/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $23.20 and $28.22.
The fund has a beta of 0.46 and standard deviation of 0.00% for the trailing three-year period. With about 81 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
iShares U.S. Power Infrastructure ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Global Infrastructure ETF (IGF) tracks S&P Global Infrastructure Index and the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) tracks INDXX U.S. Infrastructure Development Index. iShares Global Infrastructure ETF has $10.64 billion in assets, Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF has $13.54 billion. IGF has an expense ratio of 0.39% and PAVE changes 0.47%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs
Bottom Line
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
