PUI vs VPU

PUIDInvesco Dorsey Wright Utilities Momentum ETF

VPUBVanguard Utilities ETF

In short

PUI Utilities, ranked by price trend. Since 2005 PUI has run on Dorsey Wright's relative-strength screen: a concentrated set of utilities picked for momentum, reshuffled quarterly, while the category's giants own the sector by size.

VPU Utilities, the whole sector, not just the S&P 500 slice. VPU tracks an index that reaches past the megacap names into mid and small utilities, about 70 in all, for 0.09% a year. Vanguard has run it since 2004.

Stated mandate

PUI The mandate follows a modified market-capitalization-weighted index of utility-sector stocks selected for strong relative-strength characteristics, with the methodology emphasizing momentum.

VPU The fund seeks to track the MSCI US Investable Market Utilities 25/50 Index through a primarily full-replication, passively managed strategy.

Why people hold it

• PUI The technical take on the sector: the index picks utility stocks on relative strength, not size, and the fund and index are rebalanced and reconstituted quarterly.invesco.com
• One of the longest-running factor plays in utilities, listed in 2005 and still built on the same Dorsey Wright Utilities Technical Leaders Index.
• Tight rules: normally at least 90% of assets in index constituents, from an index holding no fewer than 30 utility names. Distributions come quarterly.invesco.com

• VPU At 0.09% a year, it costs roughly a quarter of the median utilities fund fee. In a sector where the holdings barely differ between funds, the fee is most of the fight.
• Its MSCI Investable Market benchmark spans large, mid and small US utilities. XLU, by contrast, drafts only from the S&P 500 universe, so the smaller names never appear.vanguard.comssga.com
• The index's 25/50 caps exist to keep any single issuer under 25% and the pile of 5%-plus names under half the fund, a guardrail in a sector with a few giants.msci.com
• Plain full replication since 2004: buy the index, hold the index. Tracking here has been among the tightest in the US utilities group.

Worth knowing

• PUI 0.60% net of a waiver through August 31, 2028 (0.82% before it), above the category median and above cap-weighted utilities like XLU at 0.08% or FUTY at 0.084%.
• Among the smaller and less-traded funds in its category, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads and more attention to how orders get entered.
• Concentration is the mechanism: a few dozen momentum leaders can look very different from the full sector, and the quarterly reshuffle keeps turnover coming.invesco.com

• VPU One sector, about 70 stocks. It swings on rate expectations and regulator decisions, with nothing outside utilities to cushion it.
• XLU and FUTY shave the fee to 0.08%, and XLU is the more heavily traded ticker if order size matters to you.
• Income arrives quarterly, not monthly, so the cash lands in four lumps a year.

Full PUI profile⁠

Full VPU profile⁠