Three ETFs That Refuse to Rank Stocks by Size. Each Picks Winners a Different Way

Quick Read

• RSP, COWZ, and MOAT each reject market-cap weighting, instead selecting stocks by equal weight, free cash flow yield, or durable competitive advantage.

• COWZ screens the Russell 1000 for the top 100 stocks by free cash flow yield, excluding financials and companies with negative projected free cash flow.

• COWZ’s cash flow approach delivered a 73% five-year return, outpacing RSP’s 50% and MOAT’s 54% across every measured time window.

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In a standard S&P 500 index fund, you own most of whichever company is worth the most. That’s market-cap weighting: each company’s slice of the fund is set by its market value, meaning its share price times all of its shares. The biggest names get the biggest slices.

Three large-company ETFs drop that rule: the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (NYSEARCA:RSP), the Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF (CBOE:COWZ), and the VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (CBOE:MOAT).

Equal Weight Hands Every S&P 500 Company the Same Slice

As its name says, RSP applies equal weighting to the S&P 500. Every company in the index gets the same slice, whatever its size.

In practice, you own far less of the giants and far more of the smaller members than a standard fund would give you. RSP leaves the membership list to the S&P 500 index and changes only how the weights are assigned.

COWZ Lets a Cash Flow Formula Choose Its Stocks

COWZ screens the Russell 1000 for the top 100 companies by free cash flow yield. Free cash flow is the cash a business has left after paying for its operations and equipment. Pacer defines the yield as free cash flow divided by enterprise value (a company’s market value plus its debt, minus its cash).

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The screen excludes financial companies and any company with negative projected free cash flow based on analyst consensus estimates. Pacer ETFs then weights the remaining companies by trailing twelve-month free cash flow, calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures.

The result looks very different from the index it starts with.

MOAT Screens for Durable Advantages at Attractive Prices

An economic moat is a durable competitive advantage, such as a powerful brand or high switching costs, that keeps competitors from eating into a company’s profits. According to VanEck, MOAT tries to track the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index. That index targets companies with sustainable competitive advantages that trade at attractive prices relative to Morningstar’s estimate of fair value.

That price test means a great business trading at a high price can be left out. Unlike Pacer ETFs’ formula, VanEck notes that Morningstar’s research draws on over 100 analysts worldwide.

VanEck’s daily holdings as of October 15, 2026 show 55 positions and $11.74B in total net assets. VanEck lists a net expense ratio of 0.46%. In VanEck’s list, Meta Platforms leads at 2.95%, followed by Microsoft at 2.86% and Danaher at 2.84%.

COWZ Leads Across Every Return Window

Prices and price returns are as of 11:32 AM ET on October 16, 2026. COWZ has the highest return in all three periods. MOAT trails both rivals year-to-date and over one year, but it’s ahead of RSP over five years. Each fund replaces cap weighting with its own distinct approach to stock selection.

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