Global X US Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE)

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On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth discussed the Global X US Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) with Chuck Jaffe of “Money Life.” The pair talked about several topics regarding the fund to give investors a deeper understanding of the ETF overall.

Chuck Jaffe: One fund … on point for today … the expert to talk about it. Welcome to the ETF of the Week, where we get the latest take from Todd Rosenbluth, the head of research at VettaFi. And if you go to VettaFi.com, you will find all the tools you need to be a savvier, smarter ETF investor, and get more details on the new newsworthy trending and timely ETFs that we talk about here. Todd Rosenbluth, it’s great to chat with you again.

Todd Rosenbluth: I’m so glad to be back.

Chuck Jaffe: Your ETF of the Week is….

Todd Rosenbluth: The Global X US Infrastructure Development ETF. Ticker P-A-V-E.

Chuck Jaffe: PAVE is the GlobalX US Infrastructure Development Fund. Why this fund now?

Todd Rosenbluth: Well, first of all, we’re heading into July 4, so, we’re celebrating the U.S. and celebrating U.S. spending. We have certainly seen that in the last couple of years. Infrastructure spending has been a long time coming. But in the last couple of years, we’ve seen $450-plus billion of money get spent by the U.S. government to repair roads, bridges, to build up the infrastructure that was much maligned for a number of years. This is something that we think will survive and continue to see spending, regardless of how the election comes out. PAVE is uniquely positioned to benefit from these trends because of its diversified approach across the spectrum.

Chuck Jaffe: Uniquely. That’s an interesting word, because there are plenty of infrastructure funds. Obviously, you could have picked them. You picked this one. What is so unique?

Todd Rosenbluth: What we like is that this is exposed to industrials and materials companies. But it’s across the spectrum. So, there are companies that are going to benefit from the supply chain to help get things ready for infrastructure spending, and then carry out that spending. And it’s well-diversified. This takes a research-oriented approach to building the overall index. We like that.

It’s relatively cheap. It’s from a thematic ETF provider, Global X, that prides itself on offering this type of suite of products. And they do a lot of research to help you get up to speed on the underlying trends. In fact, it helped us to get up to speed. So we really think this Global X ETF is well-positioned to benefit, and it’s doing relatively well as of late.

Chuck Jaffe: The uniqueness of this fund seems to show up in the idea that if you look at annualized performance, it’s been basically at the top of its peer group in almost every calendar year, since its first full one back in 2018. Whenever I see something and you go, maybe there’s a competitive edge, that’s when I worry that it’ll regress to the mean.

You’ve said this one seems to be better. So, funds can stay at the top of the charts, at the head of the peer group. Or is it maybe a little different than those other funds in terms of, do we need to think more that this has more risk or this has more whatever? Or there’s something so different about it that maybe it’s miscategorized?

Todd Rosenbluth: I think it possibly might not be categorized away in a peer group that’s broad enough. This is a thematic-oriented ETF that holds industrials and materials companies. So, I don’t know how it’s classified in the data that you’re using. But if it falls under a sector-oriented group. Then, of course, there’s gonna be performance differences between one sector or another, even if it’s within industrials, because it’s not necessarily the industrials you might think. General Electric is the largest holding in the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLI), that you’re not going to find that within this ETF. You’re going to find companies that are tied to construction and materials.

You’re going to find companies that are helping to supply and provide the trucks. We think this is uniquely positioned. And we actually think about it from a bottom-up perspective and how the companies inside are benefiting from the recent spending and the likely future spending that’s going to happen. And then, also tied to that future spending, artificial intelligence is one of those key themes that many people are focused on right now. They tend to think about the technology sector, but we think — and so do other people — that AI is going to lead to a lot more electricity spending. In this ETF, you get some exposure to that trend as well. So, multifaceted thematic oriented ETF.

Chuck Jaffe: Which raises another question. Because normally, with a thematic ETF, you go, let’s ride the theme as long as we can. But we don’t necessarily think that most themes are permanent. But the infrastructure story is not going away. It might be impacted by things that happen in Washington. But the story’s still going to be there. The needs are still going to be there.

So, is this a permanent addition to a portfolio? And what is its role within that portfolio? Where does the money come from? From somebody who’s got a diversified portfolio, to add this to their holdings?

Todd Rosenbluth: When we in VettaFi hear from advisors about thematic strategies, they’re likely using between 5% and 10% of their overall allocation of equities toward a thematic trend. And what they’re doing is usually holding between two or three different themes for the intermediate term. Intermediate term to me is three years. And then they’re revisiting that based on the fundamentals and whether or not it still makes sense to have within their portfolio. So we think PAVE could be a strategic allocation, from a thematic perspective, over the next few years, for people who believe that trend of infrastructure and infrastructure building in the U.S. is going to persist.

We think it will. Obviously, each investor has to decide if that makes sense. So this is still a small slice of the portfolio. But what we’ve seen is the assets have been building. We’ve seen net inflows for PAVE thus far in 2024.

Chuck Jaffe: It’s PAVE, the Global X US Infrastructure Development ETF. It’s the ETF of the Week from Todd Rosenbluth at VettaFi. Todd, great stuff, as always. See you again next week.

Todd Rosenbluth: I’ll see you next week, Chuck.

Chuck Jaffe: The ETF of the Week is a joint production of VettaFi and Money Life with Chuck Jaffe. And yep, you guessed it. That’s me. And you can learn all about my hour-long weekday show by going to MoneyLifeShow.com, or by searching for it wherever you find great podcasts. And if you’re looking for great information on ETFs, make sure you go to VettaFi.com, where they’ve got a full suite of tools that’s going to help you out and make you a better investor.