A sound investment process and strong management team underpin iShares MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Bronze. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's sensible investment philosophy merits an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in volatility exposure and an underweight in yield exposure compared with category peers. High volatility exposure is attributed to companies with a higher standard deviation of returns. And a low yield exposure is rooted in holding fewer stocks with high dividend or buyback yields -- instead, typically holding stocks in an early stage of development. 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

Saratoga Invest 6.75 % Notes 2016-30.12.23

Intermediate Capital Group

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GTT Communications

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Bunge

Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category index on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. iShares MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. The leading factor in the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. The process is limited by its highly diversified portfolio. The fund stashed just 5% of assets in its top 10 holdings.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is:  The investment seeks to track the investment results of the MSCI Europe Small Cap Index composed of small-capitalization developed market equities in Europe.  The fund generally will invest at least 80% of its assets in the component securities of the underlying index and in investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the component securities of the underlying index. The index is a free float-adjusted and market capitalization-weighted index that captures small-capitalization representation across the 15 developed market countries in Europe. 

 The portfolio is overweight in industrials and real estate relative to the category average by 8.2 and 6.8 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are consumer defensive and healthcare, underweight the average by 6.0 and 4.0 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is composed of 957 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than the typical peer in the category. In the most recent disclosure, 5.1% of the portfolio's assets were concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the category’s 21.8% average. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, looking at year-over-year movements, 13% of the fund's holdings have turned over, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Above Average

Process

iShares’s equity team is strong compared with others in the industry, resulting in an Above Average People Pillar rating. There are three managers listed on the fund: Paul Whitehead, Jennifer Hsui, Greg Savage. The team is well equipped, with an average of 18 years of portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of 257 strategies, with solid long-term prospects. The strategies average a Silver asset-weighted Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating a position 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.

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 MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF

IEUS tracks a market-cap-weighted index of companies in developed countries of Europe.

JPMorgan BetaBuilders Europe ETF

Xtrackers MSCI Europe Hedged Equity ETF

Xtrackers MSCI Eurozone Hedged Equity ETF

WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund

WisdomTree Europe Quality Dividend Growth Fund

ProShares MSCI Europe Dividend Growers ETF

Direxion Daily FTSE Europe Bull 3X Shares

WisdomTree Europe Hedged SmallCap Equity Fund

iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF

First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund

First Trust Europe AlphaDEX Fund

First Trust Eurozone AlphaDEX ETF

SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF

Franklin FTSE Europe ETF

Franklin FTSE Eurozone ETF

First Trust IPOX Europe Equity Opportunities ETF

Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Europe Equity ETF

WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Eurozone ETF

iShares Core MSCI Europe ETF

iShares Europe ETF

ALPS O'Shares Europe Quality Dividend ETF Shares

Pacer Trendpilot European Index ETF

First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Europe ETF

SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF

Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF

The PMI increased from 50.3 to 51.4 in April, suggesting that the eurozone economy is finally leaving stagnation and returning to growth at the start of the second quarter. Inflationary pressures remain for the service sector, but don't expect this to deter the ECB from cutting rates.

Eurozone PMI Signals A Pickup In Growth

ProShares UltraShort Euro

Invesco CurrencyShares Euro Trust

ProShares Ultra Euro

Along with rising speculation of EUR/USD approaching parity, the old question of how the European Central Bank should react to exchange rate movements is returning. We think that the falling euro is not the ECB's biggest concern on the road to a June rate cut.

A Falling Euro Is Not The ECB's Biggest Headache

Global X DAX Germany ETF

iShares MSCI Germany ETF

iShares MSCI France ETF

First Trust Germany AlphaDEX Fund

Franklin FTSE France ETF

Franklin FTSE Germany ETF

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Germany ETF

Business activity in the euro area came close to stabilising in March, as provisional PMI® survey data registered only a marginal decline in output of goods and services.

Eurozone Flash PMI Shows Economy Close To Stabilising In March, Price Pressures Ease

The eurozone escaped a technical recession, and a number of indicators suggest the economy is now bottoming out. The ECB is expected to cut rates from June onwards, but more cautiously than the market is currently anticipating.

The Eurozone Economy Is Bottoming Out

The flash estimate shows a decline in eurozone HICP inflation from 2.9% to 2.8% in January, with core inflation declining to 3.3% from 3.4% in December. However, it's too soon to declare victory in the inflation battle. As industry and retail are still struggling with excess inventories, non-energy industrial goods price inflation continues to fall and now stands at 2%.

Eurozone Headline Inflation Falls, But 'Core' Disappoints

Xtrackers MSCI Germany Hedged Equity ETF

iShares MSCI Germany Small Cap ETF

German Inflation Drops To Its Lowest Level Since June 2021

iShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF

The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged, without conveying any urgency to start cutting rates in the next few months. It seems most likely that June or July would be the preferred time to start cutting rates.

ECB In Little Rush To Cut Rates

Business activity in the euro area fell at the slowest rate for six months in January, according to provisional PMI survey data. The PMI in fact suggests that the Eurozone is enduring its deepest contraction since 2013 (if early pandemic months are excluded), albeit with recent months hinting at a bottoming out of the downturn.

Eurozone Prices Rise At Increased Rate At Start Of 2024 As Downturn Moderates

Insurers likely face a very different investment regime today than they have in the past, with higher and more volatile interest rates as well as structurally higher inflation.

Brave New World: 2024 European Insurance Outlook

Europe managed to avoid an energy crisis despite the Ukraine war, with inflation under control and interest rates peaking. The European Central Bank is expected to lead interest rate cuts, followed by the Bank of England and Scandinavian central banks.

Europe: Big Changes Coming, Good Time To Diversify One's Portfolio

The first question for next week's European Central Bank meeting is how the Bank will react to current market pricing. The second, however, is why should the ECB react to current market pricing.

ECB Preview: Resisting The Pushback

Like their peers in the US, European stocks enjoyed quite a rally over the last two months of the year. In early December the STOXX 600 broke out above the resistance of the summer highs, and while momentum has slowed in the last couple of weeks, earlier this week the index experienced a golden cross.

European Golden Cross

The European Central Bank (ECB) kept its key policy rates on hold today for the second consecutive meeting. The interest rate on the main refinancing operations, the marginal lending facility, and the deposit facility remain at 4.5%, 4.75% and 4.0%, respectively.

December ECB Meeting: A More Hawkish Stance Than The Fed

The ECB will almost surely keep rates on hold at the December meeting. The question is to what extent it will align with the market's aggressive pricing for rate cuts in 2024.

December's ECB Cheat Sheet: A Reality Check For Ultra-Dovish Expectations

The ECB hike cycle seems over, but the shockwaves of tightening will still shape the eurozone economy in 2024. Traditional lags in transmission are now accompanied by longer ones in average interest burden increases, potentially extending the impact of tightening.

2024 Set To Be The Year That The ECB Hike Cycle Is Felt

Next week's challenge for the European Central Bank is how to keep all options open without sounding too dovish but also not too detached from reality. The weak macro economic backdrop no longer justifies rate hikes, even for the hawks.

ECB Preview: The Long Dovish Shift

Slowing inflation, a cooling labour market, and lower expected corporate revenues make a peak in wage growth before the middle of next year likely. While the European Central Bank waits for clarity, this should open the door to earlier rate cuts than currently expected.

Eurozone Wage Growth Is Set To Peak Soon

After hitting a new all-time high in February, the FTSE has struggled to find any sustainable support, hurt by concerns over China, the UK's struggling economy, and high interest rates across the world. We have had some positive data out of China, the UK, and the US this week, which may mean the worst days are behind us.

FTSE Lags EU And U.S. Markets, But Time For Catch Up With Global Indices?

Real GDP growth was minus one percent for the third quarter, while the PMI Index, a measure of economic health, has been in contractionary territory since the middle of this summer. Draghi's concerns about the Eurozone's economic prospects center on the fear that the region is falling further behind both the US and China in terms of global competitiveness.

Europe's Ongoing Malaise

Rising wages and higher incomes are boosting Europe's economic recovery, but policymakers may face challenges due to population aging and shrinking workforce. Demographics and shorter working weeks mean employers face fierce competition to find qualified workers and must pay more to retain them.

Europe's Wage Rises Are Aiding Recovery But Economies Face Risks

Eurozone growth turned negative in the third quarter and the next two quarters don't look very promising either. With inflation declining, the case for an additional rate hike is disappearing.

The Eurozone Is Flirting With Recession

Businesses report a slight tick-up in selling price expectations, but hard data still looks benign. Decline in the Economic Sentiment Indicator in October came as no surprise after the PMI had already dropped further into contraction territory.

Eurozone Economy Braces Itself For Prolonged Sluggishness

The European Central Bank increasingly seems to embrace the idea that the peak in policy rates has already been reached. After 10 consecutive hikes, the ECB's decision to leave policy rates unchanged should have been an easy one.

ECB: A Dovish Pause Now, A Peak Soon

With the exception of a brief period of growth during the opening quarter of 2023, euro area manufacturing output has decreased continuously since the middle of 2022. The downturn in new orders and the accelerated depletion of backlogs of orders prompted firms to reduce employment for the first time since January 2021.

Rising Recession Risks As Eurozone Flash PMI Falls In October, Price Pressures Ease Further

If anything, developments since the September meeting have made it even easier for the European Central Bank to pause at its next meeting. As much as the ECB has tried to keep the door to further rate hikes open since the September decision, recent developments have clearly complicated this position.

News for iShares MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF ETF (IEUS)