Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Financials ETF (IYF)?

Read MoreHide Full Article

Looking for broad exposure to the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market? You should consider the iShares U.S. Financials ETF (IYF - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 05/22/2000.

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options 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 2, placing it in top 13%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $2.33 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market. IYF seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Financials Index before fees and expenses.

The Russell 1000 Financials 40 Act 15/22.5 Daily Capped Index measures the performance of the financial sector of the U.S. equity market.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are 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 1.34%.

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 99.50% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B (BRK.B - Free Report) accounts for about 8.25% of total assets, followed by Jpmorgan Chase & Co (JPM - Free Report) and Bank Of America Corp (BAC - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 39% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -6.18% so far this year and it's up approximately 15.49% in the last one year (as of 03/07/2022). In that past 52-week period, it has traded between $73.42 and $91.32.

The ETF has a beta of 1.05 and standard deviation of 27.52% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 147 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares U.S. Financials 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, IYF is an excellent 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 $11.33 billion in assets, Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $44.43 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.

Published in