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Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Transportation ETF (IYT)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Transportation/Shipping segment of the equity market, the iShares U.S. Transportation ETF (IYT - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 10/06/2003.

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Industrials - Transportation/Shipping is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 5, placing it in top 31%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.58 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Transportation/Shipping segment of the equity market. IYT seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Transportation Select Industry FMC Capped Index (USD) measures the performance of companies from the Industrial Transportation, Airline and General Industrial Services industries of the U.S. equity market.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.41%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.83%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector--about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Union Pacific Corp (UNP - Free Report) accounts for about 17.11% of total assets, followed by United Parcel Service Inc Class B (UPS - Free Report) and Csx Corp (CSX - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 64.51% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IYT has lost about -7.10%, and is up roughly 2.83% in the last one year (as of 03/16/2022). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $243.18 and $279.97.

The ETF has a beta of 1.20 and standard deviation of 27.86% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 52 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares U.S. Transportation ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, IYT is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

First Trust NASDAQ Transportation ETF (FTXR - Free Report) tracks Nasdaq US Smart Transportation Index and the U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS - Free Report) tracks U.S. Global Jets Index. First Trust NASDAQ Transportation ETF has $1.13 billion in assets, U.S. Global Jets ETF has $3.34 billion. FTXR has an expense ratio of 0.60% and JETS charges 0.60%.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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