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Should iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF (IWY) Be on Your Investing Radar?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Large Cap Growth segment of the US equity market, the iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF (IWY - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 09/22/2009.

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $12.23 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the Large Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

Why Large Cap Growth

Companies that fall in the large cap category tend to have a market capitalization above $10 billion. They tend to be stable companies with predictable cash flows and are usually less volatile than mid and small cap companies.

Growth stocks have higher than average sales and earnings growth rates. While these are expected to grow faster than the broader market, they also have higher valuations. Further, growth stocks have a higher level of volatility associated with them. When you consider growth versus value, growth stocks are usually the clear winner in strong bull markets but tend to fall flat in nearly all other environments.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.20%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.51%.

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 to the Information Technology sector--about 53.70% of the portfolio. Telecom and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Apple Inc (AAPL - Free Report) accounts for about 13.67% of total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT - Free Report) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 63.74% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

IWY seeks to match the performance of the Russell Top 200 Growth Index before fees and expenses. The Russell Top 200 Growth Index is a style factor weighted index that measures the performance of the largest capitalization growth sector of the U.S. equity market. It is a subset of the Russell Top 200 Index issuers with relatively higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth, which measures the performance of the largest capitalization sector of the U.S. equity market.

The ETF return is roughly 28.45% so far this year and it's up approximately 50.69% in the last one year (as of 10/29/2024). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $151.91 and $225.97.

The ETF has a beta of 1.08 and standard deviation of 22.32% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 110 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares Russell Top 200 Growth 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, IWY is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

The Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG - Free Report) and the Invesco QQQ (QQQ - Free Report) track a similar index. While Vanguard Growth ETF has $143.78 billion in assets, Invesco QQQ has $301.17 billion. VUG has an expense ratio of 0.04% and QQQ charges 0.20%.

Bottom-Line

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

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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