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Should You Invest in the iShares Global Industrials ETF (EXI)?

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Launched on 09/12/2006, the iShares Global Industrials ETF (EXI - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Industrials - Broad segment of the U.S. equity market.

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also 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 2, placing it in top 13%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $255.81 M, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Broad segment of the U.S. equity market. EXI seeks to match the performance of the S&P Global 1200 Industrials Sector Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Global 1200 Industrials Sector Index measures the performance of companies that are part of the industrials sector of the economy.

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 0.48%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.50%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Looking at individual holdings, Boeing (BA - Free Report) accounts for about 4.18% of total assets, followed by General Electric (GE - Free Report) and 3m (MMM - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 24.86% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the iShares Global Industrials ETF has lost about -1.63% so far, and is up roughly 10.38% over the last 12 months (as of 05/30/2018). EXI has traded between $84.11 and $99.02 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.04 and standard deviation of 13.80% for the trailing three-year period, making it a low risk choice in the space. With about 216 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

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.