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Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Industrials ETF (IYJ)?

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The iShares U.S. Industrials ETF (IYJ - Free Report) was launched on 06/12/2000, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Industrials - Broad 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.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Industrials - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 4, placing it in top 25%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.26 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Broad segment of the equity market. IYJ seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Industrials Index before fees and expenses.

The Russell 1000 Industrials 40 Act 15/22.5 Daily Capped Index measures the performance of the industrial sector of the U.S. equity market. It includes: construction & materials, aerospace & defense, general industrials, electronic & electrical equipment, industrial engineering, industrial transportation & support services. The Index is capitalization-weighted.

Costs

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

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 1.06%.

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 Industrials sector--about 63.20% of the portfolio. Financials and Information Technology round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Visa Inc Class A (V - Free Report) accounts for about 7.61% of total assets, followed by Mastercard Inc Class A (MA - Free Report) and Accenture Plc Class A (ACN - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 34.66% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IYJ has lost about -0.80%, and is up roughly 17.35% in the last one year (as of 01/22/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $95.26 and $114.66.

The ETF has a beta of 1.13 and standard deviation of 18.59% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 190 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares U.S. Industrials 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, IYJ 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.

Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Industrials 25/50 Index and the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLI - Free Report) tracks Industrial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Industrials ETF has $4.37 billion in assets, Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $15.59 billion. VIS has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLI 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.

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