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Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Financial Services ETF (IYG)?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market? You should consider the iShares U.S. Financial Services ETF (IYG - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/12/2000.

Passively managed ETFs are becoming increasingly popular with institutional as well as retail investors due to their low cost, transparency, flexibility and tax efficiency. They are excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Sector ETFs are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Financials - Broad 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 $1.94 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market. IYG seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services Index before fees and expenses.

The Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services Index measures the performance of the financial services sector of the U.S. equity market.

Costs

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.41%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.66%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector--about 82% of the portfolio, followed by Information Technology.

Looking at individual holdings, Jpmorgan Chase & Co (JPM - Free Report) accounts for about 10.71% of total assets, followed by Visa Inc Class A (V - Free Report) and Bank Of America Corp (BAC - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 55.34% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -20.16% and is down about -15% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/11/2022), respectively. IYG has traded between $156.05 and $203.56 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.18 and standard deviation of 31.92% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 111 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares U.S. Financial Services 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, IYG is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Financials ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Financials 25/50 Index and the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF - Free Report) tracks Financial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Financials ETF has $10.29 billion in assets, Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $35.15 billion. VFH has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLF charges 0.10%.

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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