Looking for broad exposure to the Technology - Broad segment of the equity market? You should consider the iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 05/15/2000.
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. Technology - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 5, placing it in top 31%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $13.08 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Broad segment of the equity market. IYW seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Technology Index before fees and expenses.
The Russell 1000 Technology RIC 22.5/45 Capped Index includes companies in the following sectors: software and computer services and technology hardware and equipment. The Index is capitalization-weighted and includes only companies in the technology industry of the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Index.
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 0.40%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.35%.
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 Information Technology sector--about 84.60% of the portfolio. Telecom and Industrials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Apple Inc (AAPL) accounts for about 18.15% of total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT) and Alphabet Inc Class A (GOOGL).
The top 10 holdings account for about 63.80% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the iShares U.S. Technology ETF return is roughly 57.14% so far, and was up about 50.36% over the last 12 months (as of 11/22/2023). IYW has traded between $72.40 and $117.62 in this past 52-week period.