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Should iShares Morningstar MidCap Growth ETF (JKH) Be on Your Investing Radar?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market? You should consider the iShares Morningstar MidCap Growth ETF , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/28/2004.

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.22 billion, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

Why Mid Cap Growth

Compared to large and small cap companies, mid cap businesses tend to have higher growth prospects and are less volatile, respectively, with market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion. Thus, companies that fall under this category provide a stable and growth-heavy investment.

While growth stocks do boast higher than average sales and earnings growth rates, and they are expected to grow faster than the wider market, investors should note these kinds of stocks have higher valuations. Additionally, growth stocks have a greater level of risk associated with them. Even though growth stocks are more likely to outperform their value counterparts in strong bull markets, value stocks have a record of delivering better returns in almost all markets than growth stocks.

Costs

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.30%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.21%.

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 to the Information Technology sector--about 45.10% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Industrials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Zoom Video Communications Inc Clas (ZM - Free Report) accounts for about 3.29% of total assets, followed by Square Inc Class A (SQ - Free Report) and Mercadolibre Inc (MELI - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 17.75% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

JKH seeks to match the performance of the Morningstar Mid Growth Index before fees and expenses. The Morningstar Mid Growth Index measures the performance of stocks issued by mid-capitalization companies. The Morningstar index methodology defines mid-capitalization stocks as those stocks that form the 20% of market capitalization between the 70th and 90th percentile of the market capitalization of the stocks eligible to be included in the Morningstar US Market Index.

The ETF return is roughly 31.25% so far this year and was up about 40.54% in the last one year (as of 10/16/2020). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $188.46 and $346.55.

The ETF has a beta of 1.08 and standard deviation of 23.91% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 166 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares Morningstar MidCap Growth 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, JKH is a great 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 Vanguard MidCap Growth ETF (VOT - Free Report) and the iShares Russell MidCap Growth ETF (IWP - Free Report) track a similar index. While Vanguard MidCap Growth ETF has $8.78 billion in assets, iShares Russell MidCap Growth ETF has $14.01 billion. VOT has an expense ratio of 0.07% and IWP charges 0.24%.

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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