A sound investment process and strong management team underpin iShares Core MSCI Intl Dev Mkts ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's sensible investment philosophy merits a High Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight in volatility exposure and an underweight in quality exposure compared with category peers. High volatility exposure is attributed to companies with a higher standard deviation of returns. And a low quality exposure is rooted in stocks with higher financial leverage and lower profitability. The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Above Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

Analyst Rating

ASML Hld

National Energy Services Reunited

Moelis

Shell PLC

AstraZeneca

Novan

SAP SE

Rogers

TotalEnergies SE

BHP Billiton

Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. iShares Core MSCI Intl Dev Mkts ETF earns a High Process Pillar rating. The main driver of the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Strong risk-adjusted performance also strengthens the process. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process was successful over that period. The firm's five-year retention rate of 92% strengthens the process as well.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is:  The investment seeks to track the investment results of the MSCI World ex USA Investable Market Index.  The fund generally will invest at least 80% of its assets in the component securities of its underlying index and in investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the component securities of its underlying index. The underlying index is free float adjusted, market cap weighted, and is designed to measure large-, mid- and small-capitalization equity market performance and includes stocks from North America, Europe, and Australasia and the Far East. 

 The portfolio has allocations in its top two sectors, real estate and industrials, that are similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and consumer defensive; however, the allocations are similar to the category. The portfolio is composed of 2,298 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than the typical peer in the category. In the most recent disclosure, 11.9% of the fund’s assets were concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the category average's 15.4%. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 2% of the fund's holdings have turned over, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

High

Process

iShares Core MSCI Intl Dev Mkts ETF benefits considerably from its team, earning it an Above Average People Pillar rating. There are three managers listed on the fund: Paul Whitehead, Jennifer Hsui, Greg Savage. Experience on the team is abundant, with 18 years of average portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of 257 strategies, with a Silver asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, demonstrating their potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate.  

 Note: This People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. Morningstar analysts evaluate the People Pillar for passive products at the brand level and may also differentiate by asset class. There is at least one other passive strategy at the firm that is covered by a Morningstar analyst, so the People Pillar rating of the fund is inherited from the rating that the Morningstar analyst assigned to investment vehicles under the same brand name.

Above Average

People

BlackRock offers compelling options across asset classes and vehicles. It earns an Above Average rating for Parent. 
The firm’s approximately USD 8 trillion in assets under management, as of Sept. 30, 2022, gives it unparalleled scale and influence. It is a market-leading index fund provider globally, and its iShares exchange-traded fund franchise offers a low-cost lineup of core funds that investors can use to build a well-diversified portfolio for dirt cheap. The firm can be more adventurous in its ETF launches than some peers, so not everything it launches is appropriate for the masses. As a result, it is likely to have more ETF closures than peers that stick to the basic building blocks.  
The firm’s active fixed-income and multi-asset efforts also stand out as some of the best in the industry. Those benefit from BlackRock’s commitment to building a first-class risk management system via its Aladdin analytics software. The software is also available for sale to other firms and has proved to be a popular option for competitors, a testament to its usefulness. 
More recently, the firm has shifted its focus to ESG offerings and incorporating ESG across its investment lineup, leading to a political backlash in the United States.
BlackRock isn’t the best at everything it tries to do, but retail investors, financial advisors, and large institutions could all build robust portfolios using BlackRock’s products.

Parent

iShares Core MSCI International Developed Markets ETF

IDEV tracks a market-cap-weighted index of large-, mid, and small-cap stocks from developed countries, excluding the US.

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By: Nolan Mauk In the post-pandemic era marked by economic uncertainty, volatility, geopolitical tension, and deglobalization, one thing has been made clear: no market, sector, or asset class is immune to the effects of rapidly changing market cycles.

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Now is an opportune time for investors with home country biases to add international exposure. With international stocks trading at a discount relative to past valuations, there is significant upside opportunity.

Optimize International Exposure for Current Opportunities

IDEV invests outside the United States in over 20 developed markets, although the fund is concentrated in closer to 14 markets. The fund maintains a relatively modest portfolio-wide return on equity. However, the fund is stable, and the beta matches the S&P 500.

IDEV: Non-U.S. Developed Markets Offer Strong Nominal Returns

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Though U.S. stocks are showering strong gains to investors, the international market is not behind.

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US Markets have begun to underperform other developed markets due to high valuation. IDEV is a great liquid option to get full diversification to all developed markets with lower valuations.

IDEV: Timely ETF For Ongoing Country Rotation

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iShares has lowered the expense ratios on several popular funds in a move that makes its already low-cost ETFs even more accessible to investors. The affected funds include the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG), the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG), the iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF (IXUS), the iShares [.

iShares Just Slashed Fees: Here's What You Need to Know

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EM Equities Progress Check

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Developed-market (DM) household savings recorded a significant gain last year, with an increase equivalent to 10% of combined gross domestic product (GDP). This build-up is likely to bolster consumption as restrictions on economic and social activity are removed and pent-up demand unlocked.

Will Household Savings Provide An Upside Growth Surprise?

News for iShares Core MSCI International Developed Markets ETF ETF (IDEV)