Corporate America is continuing its share buyback binge, but there has not been a trickle-down effect to exchange-traded funds employing repurchases as part of their weighting methodology. For example, the PowerShares Buyback Achievers Fund (ETF) (NYSE: PKW) is off a third of a percent year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is higher by more than 2 percent.
Over the past year, PKW's divergence from the S&P 500 is even more alarming. The buyback ETF, which has a track record of beating the S&P 500, is down 8.4 percent while the benchmark U.S. equity index is down just 1.1 percent.
Buybacks On Fire
During that time, buybacks have been soaring. For the one-year period ending March 31, 2016, S&P 500 companies repurchased a record $589.4 billion of their own shares, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The first quarter ...
/www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/06/8143095/as-buybacks-soar-buyback-etf-tries-to-get-its-groove-back alt=As Buybacks Soar, Buyback ETF Tries To Get Its Groove Back>Full story available on Benzinga.com
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