Investment Education

If you're interested in broad exposure to the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market, look no further than the iShares U.S. Financial Services ETF (IYG), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/12/2000.

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.

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. Financials - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 1, placing it in top 6%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.62 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market. IYG seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services Index before fees and expenses.

The Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services Index measures the performance of the financial services sector of the U.S. equity market.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.39%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.14%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector--about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B (BRK.B) accounts for about 14.24% of total assets, followed by Jpmorgan Chase & Co (JPM) and Visa Inc Class A (V).

The top 10 holdings account for about 60.74% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IYG return is roughly 35.46%, and is up about 43.76% in the last one year (as of 12/11/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $57.13 and $82.34.

The ETF has a beta of 1.16 and standard deviation of 20.79% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 106 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.