Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Transportation/Shipping segment of the equity market, the iShares U.S. Transportation ETF (IYT Quick QuoteIYT - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on October 6, 2003.

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. Industrials - Transportation/Shipping 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 $936.45 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Transportation/Shipping segment of the equity market. IYT seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Transportation Select Industry FMC Capped Index (USD) measures the performance of companies from the Industrial Transportation, Airline and General Industrial Services industries of the U.S. equity market.

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 1.02%.

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 Industrials sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Uber Technologies Inc (UBER) accounts for about 15.96% of total assets, followed by Union Pacific Corp (UNP) and United Parcel Service Inc Class B (UPS).

The top 10 holdings account for about 72.3% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about 1.68% and is up roughly 16.79% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 03/16/2026), respectively. IYT has traded between $55.22 and $82.4 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.23 and standard deviation of 20.87% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 48 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

iShares U.S. Transportation 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, IYT is a good option for those seeking exposure to the Industrials ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) tracks U.S. Global Jets Index and the First Trust NASDAQ Transportation ETF (FTXR) tracks Nasdaq US Smart Transportation Index. U.S. Global Jets ETF has $618.68 million in assets, First Trust NASDAQ Transportation ETF has $812.49 million. JETS has an expense ratio of 0.6%, and FTXR charges 0.6%.

Bottom Line

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