Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB)?

Read MoreHide Full Article

The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB - Free Report) was launched on 05/01/2006, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Industrials - Engineering and Construction segment of the equity market.

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 also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Industrials - Engineering and Construction is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 1, placing it in top 6%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $2.25 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Engineering and Construction segment of the equity market. ITB seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Construction Index before fees and expenses.

The Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Builders Index is a subset of the Dow Jones U.S. Household Goods Index. It is a free-float adjusted market capitalization-weighted index. It measures the performance of the home construction sector of the U.S. equity market.

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 0.40%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.62%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector--about 76.20% of the portfolio. Industrials and Materials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, D R Horton Inc (DHI - Free Report) accounts for about 15.09% of total assets, followed by Lennar A Corp (LEN - Free Report) and Nvr Inc (NVR - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 64.68% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF has added roughly 36.51% so far, and it's up approximately 52.72% over the last 12 months (as of 09/14/2023). ITB has traded between $50.75 and $89.31 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.40 and standard deviation of 30.53% 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. Home Construction 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, ITB is an outstanding 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.

Invesco Building & Construction ETF (PKB - Free Report) tracks Dynamic Building & Construction Intellidex Index and the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB - Free Report) tracks S&P Homebuilders Select Industry Index. Invesco Building & Construction ETF has $254.69 million in assets, SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF has $1.37 billion. PKB has an expense ratio of 0.57% and XHB 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.

Published in