We have qualitatively reviewed this strategy and reaffirmed its Above Average Process and People ratings. IShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF IGSB provides a broadly diversified portfolio of short-term investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds at a low cost. The following text is from Feb. 27, 2023.

The fund tracks the ICE BofA 1-5 Year US Corporate Index, which holds investment-grade corporate bonds with between 1 and 5 years remaining to maturity. Eligible bonds must be U.S.-dollar-denominated and have a minimum amount outstanding of $250 million. Selected bonds are weighted by their market value, staying faithful to the nature of issuance activities in the short-term corporate bond market. As a result, the fund’s portfolio tilts toward issuers from the debt-heavy financial-services sector, typically investing 40%-50% of its assets here. 

The fund lands in the short-term bond Morningstar Category, which includes funds with noncorporate exposure. Its average category peer tends to invest around half of its assets in government bonds and asset-backed securities. Though the fund’s composition is reflective of the short-term corporate bond market, it takes more credit risk than its average rival. Most of the portfolio tends to be split between bonds rated A and BBB, while its average peer parks nearly 40% in bonds rated AAA. 

This fund is more vulnerable to credit shocks than its peers, but it also stands to benefit when credit spreads tighten. Despite higher credit risk, its broad portfolio ensures that no single issuer will sink the fund’s performance. Since its index switch in 2018 through January 2023, the fund has outpaced the category average by 72 basis points annualized.

A large portion of funds in the category target the 1- to 3-year section of the maturity spectrum. Thus, the fund’s duration is slightly longer than its category average. This has hurt performance during periods of rising interest rates, such as 2022.

Analyst Rating

Low-cost exposure to short-term corporate bonds.

Analyst

Lan Anh Tran

We have qualitatively reviewed this strategy and reaffirmed its Above Average Process rating. The following text is from Feb. 27, 2023. 

IShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF offers broadly diversified exposure to short-term U.S. corporate bonds. Its corporate lineup might behave differently from multisector peers, but the fund's well-constructed portfolio still earns an Above Average Process rating.

Above Average

Process

We have qualitatively reviewed this strategy and reaffirmed its Above Average People rating. The following text is from Feb. 27, 2023. 

BlackRock boasts a large and experienced team reinforced by sector specialists, support teams, and centralized trading desks, mitigating key-person risk and underpinning an Above Average People rating.

James Mauro and Karen Uyehara have been named as lead portfolio managers on this fund since 2011 and 2021, respectively. Mauro joined BlackRock in 2010 from State Street, while Uyehara joined the same year from Western Asset. Uyehara replaced Scott Radell as a lead portfolio manager in June 2021. The change does not affect the team’s processes nor our confidence in its abilities going forward. 

Portfolio management is a team effort at BlackRock, so the named manager interacts with a wider team of traders and managers around the globe to execute the fund’s day-to-day operations. A separate index analytics team researches and helps prepare for corporate actions and index changes. Most of the portfolio management process is automated as BlackRock’s Aladdin platform fulfills much of the portfolio management tasks. Portfolio managers primarily review and approve trades prior to and after execution, utilizing discretion when there’s opportunity for added value. An independent risk management team supervises index-tracking performance.

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 Trust iShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

IGSB tracks a market-value-weighted index of US dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate debt with 1-5 years remaining in maturity.

Deere & Company

Everest Group Ltd

Diamondback Energy

Global Payments

iShares Core Total USD Bond Market ETF

Oracle

Oshkosh

Raytheon Technologies

Wintrust Financial

Barron's First New-Year Roundtable, published 1/11/24, listed 8 stocks of note for 2024. The follow-up article published 1/22/24 mentioned 27 more and included a buy-recommendation from Andrew Bary for BP.

How Barron's Pro-Picked 2024 Dividend Dogs Run In March

iShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF is a fixed income exchange traded fund. The vehicle focuses on corporate investment grade bonds with an overall low duration of 2.5 years. The market is pricing a risk-on environment with continued growth and low unemployment, leading to extremely low BBB bond credit spreads.

IGSB: Investment Grade Bond Spreads Are Priced For Perfection (Rating Downgrade)

Canadian Natural Resources

Intel

RELX

Barron's First New-Year Roundtable, published 1/11/24, listed 8 stocks of note for 2024. The follow-up article published 1/22/24 mentioned 27 more and included a buy-recommendation from Andrew Bary for BP. Barron's interviews of eleven financial-industry Roundtable-pros over those two-weeks tapped 35 predictions along-with the BP-feature. Four funds were missed by YCharts screen of active-stocks. Seven-selections paid no-dividends, leaving 23 in-the-pool. The combined Barron's two-part list tracked-by YCharts as of 2/8/24 projected ten-top analyst-estimated net-gains from ORCL, INTC RTX, GPN, DE, OSK, WTFC, FANG, BP & topped-by EG ranging 6.0%-27.58%.

Barron's Round Table New-Year 2024 Dividend Dogs

PIMCO Active Bond ETF

Capital Group Core Plus Income ETF

iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF

Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF

While 2023 was the year of Fed rate hikes, the fixed income market is expecting 2024 to be the year of rate cuts. At the December 2023 meeting, the Federal Reserve's own guidance was for three 25 basis point reductions in 2024.

Advisors More Conservative About Rate Cuts

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF

iShares Core S&P 500 ETF

iShares Russell 2000 ETF

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust

iShares TIPS Bond ETF

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF

Wall Street witnessed an upbeat Q4 due to moderation in inflationary pressures, the likelihood of Fed rate cuts in 2024 and decent corporate earnings.

ETF Asset Report of Q4

November to mid-December has been a great time for the capital markets. iShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF has lagged its brethren in terms of performance, thanks to its low duration. We examine the setup and tell you why Treasury Bills may be your best bet relative to the IGSB ETF.

IGSB: Rate Cuts Priced In, Here Is Where You Can Do Better

iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF

iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF

iShares MBS ETF

Invesco QQQ

Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund

During LSEG Lipper's fund-flows week that ended October 18, 2023, investors were overall net sellers of fund assets for the fourth week in five, removing a net $106.3 billion. Exchange-traded equity funds recorded $2.2 billion in weekly net inflows, the third straight week of attracting new capital.

U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Largest Weekly Outflow Since June 11, 2008 - Led By Money Market Funds (-$97.5 Billion)

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF

JPMorgan Global Select Equity ETF

During LSEG Lipper's fund-flows week that ended October 4, 2023, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets for the first week in three, adding a net $32.9 billion. The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Total Return Index logged its third straight weekly loss. Exchange-traded equity funds recorded $4.7 billion in weekly net inflows, marking the first weekly inflow in three.

U.S. Weekly Fund-Flows Insight Report: Taxable Fixed Income Funds Top Last Week's 2023 Outflow Record

SPDR Portfolio Short Term Corporate Bond ETF

Advisors have choices to face with their fixed income allocation. Should they take on credit risk to be rewarded with a high level of income?

Chart of Week: Advisors Prefer Short-Term High-Quality Bonds

The iShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF seeks to track an index of short-term investment-grade corporate bonds. The fund has a duration of 2.57 years and a collateral weighted average maturity of 2.96 years. Although Banking is the largest sectoral allocation, the probability of default is mitigated by the fund's granular build, with larger than 1% exposure only allocated to systemically important banks.

IGSB: Investment Grade Corporate Bonds, Attractive Risk/Reward Proposition

iShares Floating Rate Bond ETF

iShares 5-10 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

iShares National Muni Bond ETF

SPDR Portfolio Intermediate Term Corporate Bond ETF

iShares Broad USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bond ETF

Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond Index ETF

For many, social security isn't enough to fund their retirement needs. Bonds can help produce another income stream.

Best Bonds For Income

iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

Invesco Russell 1000 Dynamic Multifactor ETF

iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF

iShares Short-Term National Muni Bond ETF

Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund

Investors were net purchasers of fund assets (including those of conventional funds and ETFs) for the second week in a row, injecting a net $9.6 billion for the LSEG Lipper fund-flows week ended Wednesday, September 6. Equity ETFs witnessed net outflows for the second week in three, handing back a little more than $1.4 billion for the most recent fund flows week. For the first week in three, taxable fixed income ETFs experienced net outflows, handing back $1.1 billion this week.

Rise In Oil Prices And Treasury Yields Push ETF And Conventional Fund Investors To Money Market Funds During The Fund Flows Week

Ameren

AstraZeneca

Biogen

CME Group

CNH Industrial NV

Genuine Parts

Intercontinental Exchange

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.

Cie Generale des Etablissements Michelin SCA

Mueller Industries

Paramount Global

Siemens AG

Sylvamo Corp

TEGNA

Target

Textron

Barron's Mid-Year Roundtable, Published July 17, listed 40 stocks of note for 2023; 38 of those were unduplicated US publicly-listed companies, of-which YCharts reported 25 as paying dividends. Barron's interviews with their ten financial-industry Roundtable pros tapped human intelligence (HI) to make predictions. Unfortunately, the YCharts screener employed to report current data, dropped seven funds off the list. Nevertheless, the Watchlist tracked by YCharts as of 7/19/23 projected ten top analyst-estimated net gains from ICE, PARA, TXT, AZN, MLI, BIIB, SIEGY, CHNI, TGNA, & topped by SLVM, ranging from 15.53%-31.31%.

4 Ideal Barron's Mid-Year 2023 Dividend Dog Buys

Alerian MLP ETF

Simplify Stable Income ETF

Doubleline Opportunistic Bond ETF

Innovator Premium Income 10 Barrier Etf-July

Pimco Senior Loan Active Exchange-Traded Fund

PIMCO Multi Sector Bond Active ETF

With the Fixed Income Symposium taking place on Monday, July 24, the VettaFi Voices gathered at the water cooler to discuss the current state of fixed income markets.

VettaFi Voices On: The State of Fixed Income

Lower CDS values and a more transparent interest rate cycle outlook lend the iShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF the necessary latitude to outperform expectations. The ETF's exposure to cyclical sectors and high-risk credit can be advantageous if key bond market metrics resume their trajectory. In our view, the Fed's pivot will be delayed. Nevertheless, inflation stability provides much to cheer about for corporate bond investors.

IGSB: Salient Risk-Return Metrics Are Starting To Align (Rating Upgrade)

iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF

iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF

Investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets for the sixth week in seven, adding a net of $22.4 billion. Money market funds, taxable-bond funds, and tax-exempt bond funds attracted new capital, while equity funds suffered outflows. U.S. broad-based equity indices reported positive returns, with the Russell 2000 experiencing its highest weekly return since May 20, 2020.

U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Conventional Investment Grade Funds Attract Largest Weekly Inflow Of 2023

iShares 10+ Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

Blackrock US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF

As of year-end 2022, U.S. insurance companies invested $37 billion in ETFs. This represented only a fraction of the $6.5 trillion in U.S. ETF assets under management and the $7.9 trillion in invested assets of U.S. insurance companies, according to a just-released report from S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Insurers Own Large Stakes in Fixed Income ETFs

SPDR Gold Trust

Kroger

Southern Company

Some sectors fare better than others when inflation is high. Physical assets such as gold and real estate often hold their relative value when dollars don't.

You Can't Control Inflation, But You Can Control What You Do About It

IGSB invests in short-term investment grade corporate bonds. The fund has delivered lower total returns in the long run than other longer duration bond funds in the same category.

IGSB: Parking Your Cash Here Is Likely Not The Best Choice

ARK Fintech Innovation ETF

ARK Innovation ETF

ARK Web x.0 ETF

iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF

iShares MSCI Mexico ETF

Renaissance IPO ETF

Proshares Online Retail ETF

Virtus InfraCap U.S. Preferred Stock ETF

Invesco Financial Preferred ETF

Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF

Invesco Preferred ETF

Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond BuyWrite Strategy ETF

Main Thematic Innovation ETF

Stock markets started 2023 with a bang, as major indexes posted solid gains in January. Some of the best ETFs and mutual funds jumped.

Stocks Are Off To Stellar Start This Year; Can It Continue?

Despite its "best-in-class" allocation, the iShares Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF is facing an uphill battle as short-term corporate bond premiums remain adrift. It's unlikely that investors will opt for corporate bonds until monetary policies, inflation, the FX market, and credit spreads find calm.

IGSB: Stale Prospects As Risk Premiums Are Unfavorable

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Multifactor ETF

iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF

The funds mostly focus on fixed income and equity investing.

BlackRock Cuts Fees on 8 iShares ETFs

iShares US Infrastructure ETF

iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF

iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF

iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF

iShares MSCI Global Agriculture Producers ETF

iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF

Hello! In this week's ETF Wrap, BlackRock's Gargi Chaudhuri, head of iShares investment strategy for the Americas, discusses ways for investors to play a world of higher rates and elevated inflation in 2023.

Where BlackRock sees ‘tremendous' market opportunities for ETF investors in 2023 after damage to stocks, bonds

Bonds are back, and there is a huge opportunity at the front end of the curve, according to iShares. In the asset manager's Year Ahead Investor Guide released today, iShares noted that during the last decade, investors largely moved away from fixed income in search of yield amid a lower-rate environment.

iShares Recommends Looking at the Front End of the Curve

Invesco Senior Loan ETF

Fidelity Total Bond ETF

PIMCO Enhanced Low Duration Active ETF

 SPDR Blackstone Senior Loan ETF

SPDR DoubleLine Total Return Tactical ETF

While 2022 is not finished, two things are quite likely to be a fact in early 2023.

Don't Get AGG-ravated, Expand Your Fixed Income Toolset

News for iShares Trust iShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF ETF (IGSB)