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Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO)?

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If you're interested in broad exposure to the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market, look no further than the iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 05/01/2006.

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Additionally, sector ETFs offer convenient ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Energy - Exploration is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 2, placing it in top 13%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.07 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market. IEO seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index before fees and expenses.

The Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization-weighted index. The Index includes companies that are engaged in the exploration for and extraction, production, refining, and supply of oil and gas products.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.42%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.40%.

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 Energy sector--about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Conocophillips (COP - Free Report) accounts for about 18.28% of total assets, followed by Eog Resources Inc (EOG - Free Report) and Pioneer Natural Resource (PXD - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 70.13% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IEO return is roughly 52.28%, and was up about 67.80% in the last one year (as of 06/14/2022). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $46.60 and $105.40.

The ETF has a beta of 1.70 and standard deviation of 48.16% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 54 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, IEO is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Energy ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF (PXE - Free Report) tracks Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Intellidex Index and the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP - Free Report) tracks S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index. Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF has $361.88 million in assets, SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF has $5.32 billion. PXE has an expense ratio of 0.63% and XOP charges 0.35%.

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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