Looking for broad exposure to the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market? You should consider the iShares Russell MidCap Growth ETF (IWP), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 07/17/2001.
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $11.83 billion, making it the largest ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.
Why Mid Cap Growth
With market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion, mid cap companies usually contain higher growth prospects than large cap companies, and are considered less risky than their small cap counterparts. Thus, companies that fall under this category provide a stable and growth-heavy investment.
While growth stocks do boast higher than average sales and earnings growth rates, and they are expected to grow faster than the wider market, investors should note these kinds of stocks have higher valuations. Additionally, growth stocks have a greater level of risk associated with them. Compared to value stocks, growth stocks are a safer bet in a strong bull market, but don't perform as strongly in almost all other financial 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 0.23%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.55%.
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 to the Information Technology sector--about 32.90% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Industrials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Synopsys Inc (SNPS) accounts for about 1.44% of total assets, followed by Cadence Design Systems Inc (CDNS) and Iqvia Holdings Inc (IQV).
The top 10 holdings account for about 11.59% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
IWP seeks to match the performance of the Russell MidCap Growth Index before fees and expenses. The Russell Midcap Growth Index measures the performance of the mid-capitalization growth sector of the U.S. equity market. It is a subset of the Russell Midcap Index, which measures the performance of the mid-capitalization sector of the U.S. equity market & approximately 47% of the total market value of the Russell Midcap Index.