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Should iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF) Be on Your Investing Radar?

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Launched on 10/23/2000, the iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $12.13 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.

Why Large Cap Blend

Large cap companies typically have a market capitalization above $10 billion. They tend to be stable companies with predictable cash flows and are usually less volatile than mid and small cap companies.

Blend ETFs usually hold a mix of growth and value stocks as well as stocks that exhibit both value and growth characteristics.

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 0.20%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.25%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, 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 34.70% of the portfolio. Telecom and Financials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Apple Inc (AAPL - Free Report) accounts for about 10.61% of total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT - Free Report) and Amazon Com Inc (AMZN - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 46.11% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

OEF seeks to match the performance of the S&P 100 Index before fees and expenses. The S&P 100 Index measures the performance of the large-capitalization sector of the U.S. equity market. It is a subset of the S&P 500 and consists of blue chip stocks from diverse industries in the S&P 500 with exchange listed options & the Index represented approximately 45% of the market capitalization of listed U.S. equities.

The ETF has gained about 28.61% so far this year and is up roughly 24.40% in the last one year (as of 12/11/2023). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $167.54 and $217.38.

The ETF has a beta of 0.99 and standard deviation of 18.08% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 105 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares S&P 100 ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, OEF is a sufficient option for those seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV - Free Report) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY - Free Report) track a similar index. While iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $381.68 billion in assets, SPDR S&P 500 ETF has $444.91 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and SPY charges 0.09%.

Bottom-Line

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they 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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