Time To Drink Up This Food And Beverage ETF?
The food and beverage sector is home to some of the bluest of blue chip stocks and some of the most reliable dividend payers around, so with news of PepsiCo's (NYSE: PEP) 7% dividend increase, the ETF Professor decided to take a look at an ETF devoted to the sector.
The PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage ETF (NYSE: PBJ) is home to Pepsi, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) among other well known food and beverage names, but oddly enough that hasn't translated to strong volume or big assets for PBJ.
The ETF has just under $54 million in assets and trades just over 56,000 shares a day. Those stats aside, investors shouldn't sleep on PBJ. The ETF is up 10% in the past three months and over 30% in the past year.
PBJ is trading right near its 52-week of $15.46, but given the safety of the names in this ETF, investors can start a position and build into it if the market starts to favor more defensive names.
And don't forget that PBJ can serve as an indirect emerging markets play with its exposure to Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's and Yum! Brands. There are hundreds of ETFs that don't get a lot of attention. PBJ shouldn't be one of them.
