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Should iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF (IWP) Be on Your Investing Radar?

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Launched on 07/17/2001, the iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF (IWP - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $12.64 billion, making it the largest ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

Why Mid Cap Growth

Mid cap companies, with market capitalization in the range of $2 billion and $10 billion, offer investors many things that small and large companies don't, including less risk and higher growth opportunities. These types of companies, then, have a good balance of stability and growth potential.

Growth stocks have higher than average sales and earnings growth rates. While these are expected to grow faster than the broader market, they also have higher valuations. Further, growth stocks have a higher level of volatility associated with them. Compared to value stocks, growth stocks are a safer bet in a strong bull market, but don't perform as strongly in almost all other financial environments.

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 0.23%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.69%.

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 to the Information Technology sector--about 22.40% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Industrials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Dexcom Inc (DXCM - Free Report) accounts for about 1.67% of total assets, followed by Idexx Laboratories Inc (IDXX - Free Report) and Apollo Global Management Inc (APO - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 8.32% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

IWP seeks to match the performance of the Russell MidCap Growth Index before fees and expenses. The Russell Midcap Growth Index measures the performance of the mid-capitalization growth sector of the U.S. equity market. It is a subset of the Russell Midcap Index, which measures the performance of the mid-capitalization sector of the U.S. equity market & approximately 47% of the total market value of the Russell Midcap Index.

The ETF has added roughly 11.57% so far this year and was up about 2.43% in the last one year (as of 08/22/2023). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $77.40 and $100.32.

The ETF has a beta of 1.10 and standard deviation of 24.28% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 340 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth 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, IWP is an outstanding option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

The iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF (IJK - Free Report) and the Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth ETF (VOT - Free Report) track a similar index. While iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF has $7.85 billion in assets, Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth ETF has $10.62 billion. IJK has an expense ratio of 0.17% and VOT charges 0.07%.

Bottom-Line

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.

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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