It might be easy to forget after today's dramatic sell-off, but in 2021, ASX shares and the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) had a pretty strong year. The ASX 200 ended up gaining a solid 13% or so for the calendar year, not including dividend returns. But the BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: HACK) made that look pretty paltry by comparison.
HACK units had a stellar year, no way about it. This exchange-traded fund (ETF) started the year at $8.82 but finished up last week at $10.86. That's a capital gain of just over 23%. But if we factor in the BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF's dividend distributions, and the returns get even better. According to the provider, HACK's total 2021 returns came to roughly 26.6%.
So how did the BetaShares Cybersecurity ETF manage to double the returns of the ASX 200?
One HACK of a year for BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF
It would have helped that this ETF doesn't invest in any ASX 200 shares. Or any Australian shares for that matter.
HACK holds a concentrated basket of companies that are judged to be world leaders in cybersecurity. Currently, 91.9% of those are US-listed companies, but there is a small presence from Israel, Japan, France, and India.
As of yesterday, its top 5 holdings were:
- Accenture Plc (NYSE: ACN) with a portfolio weighting of 6.9%
- Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) with a weighting of 6.8%
- Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE: PANW) with a weighting of 5.9%
- Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD) with a weighting of 5.3%
- Cloudflare Inc (NYSE: NET) with a weighting of 3.7%
During 2021, Accenture shares rose by a very rewarding 58.7%.
Cisco shares were up 41.6%, while Palo Alto managed a 56.66% rise.
An outlier, Crowdstrike went backwards over the year that was, falling by 3.34%.
But Cloudflare went on to record a very pleasing 73.3% gain for 2021.
With such robust performances from HACK's top 5 holdings, it's perhaps no surprise this ETF enjoyed such a successful year.
But BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF investors might be used to this by now. After all, this is a fund that has averaged a return of 30.51% per annum over the past 3 years. And 22.4% per annum over the past 5.
As we begin 2022, it will be interesting to see how HACK performs over the year to come.
The BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF charges a management fee of 0.67% per annum, or $67 for every $10,000 invested.
