Quick Read
COWZ surged with Brent crude’s 14% five-day spike, with the fund’s 16% energy weighting driving its 18% one-year gain.
Exxon rose 6% during Brent’s spike, backing its $20 billion buyback authorization with $8.77 billion in Q1 underlying earnings.
COWZ’s quarterly rebalance amplifies energy exposure after oil rallies, but a drop below 12% energy weighting signals materially reduced crude sensitivity.
Are you ahead, or behind on retirement? SmartAsset’s free tool can match you with a financial advisor in minutes to help you answer that today. Each advisor has been carefully vetted, and must act in your best interests. Don’t waste another minute; learn more here.
The Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF (NASDAQ:COWZ) just got a real-time stress test of its free-cash-flow screen, and the energy sleeve did exactly what it was built to do. Brent crude jumped from about $72 on July 7 to nearly $82 by July 13, a nearly 14% five-day rip that pulled COWZ up alongside Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and the rest of the sector. COWZ now sits at $65, up roughly 8% year to date and about 18% over the past year, with the fund’s roughly 16% energy weighting doing much of the heavy lifting.
Why This ETF Deserves a Second Look Right Now
COWZ screens the Russell 1000 for the 100 highest free-cash-flow-yielding names, which is why the portfolio looks nothing like a market-cap index. The top slots skew toward QUALCOMM at 2.67%, ConocoPhillips at 2.17%, and CVS Health at 2.16%, with energy dominating any cluster analysis. The fund holds $18.2 billion in net assets spread across roughly 100 positions, and the energy sleeve reaches from upstream producers into refiners and oilfield services names.
Exxon itself is the cleanest read-through on why cash-cow names are working. XOM generated $8.77 billion in underlying earnings in Q1 2026, funded $4.9 billion of buybacks in the quarter against a $20 billion full-year authorization, and rose about 6% in the week Brent spiked. That is the archetype COWZ tries to systematize.
_________________________________
What’s Your Number…?
Here’s a question most people 5y from retirement can’t answer: at your current savings rate, how much do you need, and how long will it actually last? A good advisor can put a date on that in a single meeting. SmartAsset’s free quiz matches you with up to three fiduciary advisors serving your area, so you can get YOUR retirement number now (sponsor)
__________________________________________
The Macro Factor That Matters Most: Brent and the Strait of Hormuz
