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Should You Invest in the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Technology - Software segment of the equity market, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 07/10/2001.

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.

Sector ETFs also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Technology - Software is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 8, placing it in top 50%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $4.78 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Software segment of the equity market. IGV seeks to match the performance of the S&P North American Technology-Software Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P North American Expanded Technology Software Index comprises of North American equities in the software industry and select North American equities from interactive home entertainment and interactive media and services industries.

Costs

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

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 0.01%.

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 Information Technology sector--about 93.60% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Adobe Inc (ADBE - Free Report) accounts for about 8.79% of total assets, followed by Salesforce Inc (CRM - Free Report) and Oracle Corp (ORCL - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 51.24% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IGV has added about 6.41%, and is down about -15.21% in the last one year (as of 03/13/2023). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $241.77 and $354.31.

The ETF has a beta of 1.05 and standard deviation of 33.34% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 125 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector 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, IGV is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Technology ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Invesco Dynamic Software ETF tracks Dynamic Software Intellidex Index and the SPDR S&P Software & Services ETF (XSW - Free Report) tracks S&P Software & Services Select Industry Index. Invesco Dynamic Software ETF has $177.31 million in assets, SPDR S&P Software & Services ETF has $219.74 million. PSJ has an expense ratio of 0.56% and XSW 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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