Four ETFs in Europe and North America have beaten the S & P 500 over the past five years, according to a screen by CNBC Pro. The U.S. benchmark rose by 23.3% in 2024 and 24.2% the previous year, making it particularly challenging for funds to outperform. It’s only the third time the S & P 500 has logged back-to-back gains of that size in the past century, according to Deutsche Bank. .SPX line 2024-01-01 CNBC Pro screened over 10,600 ETFs listed in Europe and North America that beat the S & P 500 every year between 2020 and 2024, inclusively. AIRR In 2024, the best performing fund on CNBC Pro’s list was the First Trust RBA American Industrial Renaissance ETF , gaining 33.4%. Over the past five years, the ETF has risen by 167%, compared to the S & P 500’s gain of 97%. The fund tracks the Richard Bernstein Advisors American Industrial Renaissance Index, which primarily amounts to small and mid-cap U.S. companies in the industrial and community banking sectors, a subset of the Russell 2500 index. JREU The London-listed JPMorgan U.S. Research Enhanced Index Equity ETF has beaten the benchmark every year since 2019. The JPMorgan Asset Management fund, which currently manages $13 billion in assets, employs a strategy known as “research enhanced indexing” (REI), which combines index investing and active management. Piera Elisa Grassi, co-fund manager of the ETF, previously told CNBC that the fund makes numerous small bets rather than a few large ones. The result is a fund that closely mirrors its benchmark in terms of overall composition, but with slight tweaks aimed at generating excess returns. The fund is available to most European investors. GSLC The Goldman Sachs Activebeta US Large Cap Equity ETF also beat the U.S. benchmark over the past five years. Goldman says the fund tracks an index of stocks that are “good value, strong momentum, high quality, and low volatility”. The ETF’s top 10 holdings are very similar to the S & P 500’s, however, stock weighting diverges owing to Goldman’s unique ActiveBeta index. SPTM The SPDR Portfolio S & P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF , which tracks a broader index than the S & P 500, also outperformed every year over the past five years. S & P 1500 Composite Index includes all the stocks that make up the S & P 500, S & P 400 , and S & P 600 .
