Designed to provide broad exposure to the Utilities - Broad segment of the equity market, the iShares U.S. Utilities ETF (IDU Quick QuoteIDU - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on June 12, 2000.

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.

Sector ETFs are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Utilities - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 3, placing it in top 19%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.5 billion, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Utilities - Broad segment of the equity market. IDU seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Utilities Index before fees and expenses.

The Russell 1000 Utilities RIC 22.5/45 Capped Index measures the performance of the utilities sector of the U.S. equity market. It includes companies in the following sectors: electricity and gas, water and multi-utilities.

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 0.38%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.24%.

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 in the Utilities sector -- about 90.6% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Nextera Energy Inc (NEE) accounts for about 11.25% of total assets, followed by Constellation Energy Corp (CEG) and Southern (SO).

The top 10 holdings account for about 53.68% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IDU has lost about 0.27%, and is up about 14.79% in the last one year (as of 01/13/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $93.98 and $116.84.

The ETF has a beta of 0.68 and standard deviation of 15.19% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 48 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

iShares U.S. Utilities 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, IDU is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Utilities/Infrastructure ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Utilities 25/50 Index and the State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU) tracks Utilities Select Sector Index. Vanguard Utilities ETF has $7.85 billion in assets, State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF has $21.47 billion. VPU has an expense ratio of 0.09%, and XLU charges 0.08%.

Bottom Line

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