IShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF and iShares S&P SmallCap 600 ETF’s low fee, broad diversification, and profitability bias make them hard to beat. Both the U.S. and Ireland-domiciled strategies earn Morningstar Medalist Ratings of Silver.
These funds track the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, which collects the smallest 600 stocks in the S&P 1500 composite index. Each constituent must meet initial market cap, liquidity, and profitability criteria to be eligible. The final portfolio is weighted by each stock’s float-adjusted market capitalization. 
Market-cap weighting is an efficient way to allocate the portfolio because it harnesses the market’s consensus opinion of each stock’s relative value. Faster-growing companies take up a larger share of the portfolio, while smaller companies that may be struggling take on a less-important role. This helps rein in turnover and associated trading costs.
The S&P SmallCap 600 Index operates on the smaller end of the small-cap market. Its average holding size was just over $2 billion as of April 2023, which is smaller than most index competitors. Small-cap stocks tend to be more volatile than their larger peers. However, the fund’s parent index only includes profitable names, which removes the lowest-quality small-cap stocks and contains volatility.
While the smaller names that constitute this portfolio can be volatile, the strategy’s broad reach ensures that one stock’s misfortune should not derail the entire portfolio. It stashes just 6% of assets in its top 10 holdings. That breadth helped the S&P SmallCap 600 Index return a sturdy 9.6% annually in the 10 years through April 2023. Each fund earned slightly less than that owing to its respective fee.

Analyst Rating

Controls risk in the U.S. small-cap market.

Associate Analyst

Zachary Evens

Rambus

Comfort Systems USA

e.l.f. Beauty

SPS Commerce

Applied Industrial Technologies

Ensign Group

Fabrinet

Allegheny Technologies

Meritage Homes

DXC Technology

A preference for profitable firms and sound diversification should minimize the risks of the strategy's smaller orientation. It earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.

Above Average

Process

BlackRock’s industry-leading technology, global footprint, and extensive supporting cast earn an Above Average People Pillar rating. The team employs BlackRock’s Aladdin platform to fulfill much of its portfolio management tasks, and global trading desks allow traders to conduct foreign transactions in a cost-effective way.
The U.S.-domiciled fund is managed by the iShares U.S.-based team, which has endured some turnover in recent years. But index-tracking performance should remain tight, thanks to heavily automated processes and several long-tenured managers that remain at the helm. 
Amy Whitelaw left the team in February 2023 for another role within the organization. Paul Whitehead replaced Alan Mason as a manager in January 2022, when Mason left to focus on the firm’s customized institutional indexing capabilities. IShares has not named a successor for Whitelaw. Greg Savage, Jennifer Hsui, and Whitehead will continue to oversee the fund.
Meanwhile, the European-domiciled fund is managed by the EMEA team, which has maintained a notably low rate of turnover. IShares' London-based ETF portfolio management team is now headed by Sid Swaminathan, who took charge in February 2022. His service with the firm dates to 2005, including his years with BGI. These managers interact with a wider team of traders and managers around the globe to execute the fund’s day-to-day operations. The larger number of managers also limits the impact of personnel turnover when it does occur.

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 S&P Small Cap ETF

IJR tracks a market-cap-weighted index of primarily small-cap US stocks. The S&P Committee selects 600 stocks representing about 3% of the publicly available market.

iShares Core S&P 500 ETF

 Invesco S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary ETF

Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF

SPDR S&P Retail ETF

A solid historical performance, Santa Claus Rally, a less-hawkish Federal Reserve and encouraging inflation data could unleash a mega-rally in December.

5 Top-Ranked ETFs to Buy for December

Invesco Taxable Municipal Bond ETF

Franklin Investment Grade Corporate ETF

AGF Global Infrastructure ETF

Quadratic Interest Rate Volatility and Inflation ETF

Harbor Health Care ETF

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy ETF

iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF

iShares TIPS Bond ETF

These are the questions on every investor's mind: Have markets really priced in the severity of the Fed's campaign against inflation? How bad would a 2023 recession be — if there is one at all?

3 Ways to Play iShares' 2023 Hot Takes With ETFs

iShares US Infrastructure ETF

iShares Trust iShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF

iShares MBS 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

Should iShares Core S&P SmallCap ETF (IJR) Be on Your Investing Radar?

iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF

Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund

Albion Financial's Jason Ware sees funds as mainstays in ‘core-satellite' planning.

ETFs Find a Role in a Long-Term Portfolio

iShares Russell 2000 ETF

This is an update on an article I wrote about half a year ago, motivated by the new technical and fundamental signs for the small-cap sector that I am seeing. These signs signal that small caps are poised to outperform large caps in the next few years.

IJR And IWM: Small-Cap's Rebound Has Just Started

iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF

iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF

iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF

iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Growth ETF

iShares S&P 500 Value ETF

iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF

iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF

iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF

Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF

iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol USA ETF

Vanguard U.S. Liquidity Factor ETF

Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF

Vanguard High Dividend Yield (VYM) is the top performer for US equity factors, but in 2022 that translates to a relatively modest loss. Value stocks are also doing relatively well in 2022, posting the lightest factor losses after VYM.

High Dividend Yield Still Leader For U.S. Factor Returns In 2022

Invesco ESG Nasdaq 100 ETF

Xtrackers S&P 500 ESG ETF

The supply of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ETFs, as well as those that offer a counter-narrative to ESG investing, has expanded in 2022, even as the amount of money currently invested in all of these funds remains minimal.

Want to Help Lower Client Bill's Taxes? How About ESG ETFs?

United States Copper Index Fund

SPDR Gold Trust

VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust

SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF

The macro outlook remains challenged, based on ETF prices through yesterday's close. A rising copper/gold ratio is a signal of improving economic conditions.

Mr. Market's Macro Outlook: October 11, 2022

iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol EAFE ETF

iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF

iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

Invesco QQQ

ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

During Refinitiv Lipper's fund-flows week ended September 28, 2022, investors were overall net redeemers of fund assets for the fourth week in five. The 10-two Treasury yield spread remained negative, marking the sixty-second straight trading session with an inverted yield curve.

U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Both Conventional Equity And Taxable Fixed Income Funds Suffer Largest Weekly Outflows Of 2022

Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund

Invesco Dynamic Food & Beverage ETF

Simplify Interest Rate Hedge ETF

Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF

We discuss some of the hot events of the first nine months of this year that influenced the market in a big way.

5 Top ETF Stories of Nine Months of 2022

VYM has certainly suffered so far in 2022, but the ETF's nearly 13% year to date haircut compares favorably against the broad stock market's 22.6% tumble via SPY. Momentum for the factor funds, unsurprisingly, is deeply negative.

High Dividend Yield Is Leading Edge Of Defense For U.S. Shares

Ameriprise Financial

ETRADE

iShares North American Tech-Software ETF

SPDR S&P Midcap 400 ETF Trust

iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF

Vanguard Large-Cap ETF

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund

Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund

If you had a crystal ball that told you what the stock market is going to do, how would you use it? To pick investments, right?

How To Exploit Stock Market Rise In Midterm Election Years

IJR tracks the S&P 600 Index based on a core universe of small-cap companies. The fund only includes profitable companies which add a layer of quality that has helped it outperform alternative small-cap ETFs.

IJR: Our Top Pick For Diversified Small-Caps Exposure

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF

iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF

iShares Russell 1000 ETF

Schwab Intermediate-Term US Treasury ETF

 SPDR Blackstone Senior Loan ETF

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF

Vanguard Short-Term Treasury ETF

July was another strong month for the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace, with trading activity amounting to EUR 58.7 billion. Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in July 2022 reached USD 44.1 billion.

Tradeweb Exchange-Traded Funds Update - July 2022

iShares MSCI EAFE Growth ETF

iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF

iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF

iShares U.S. Energy ETF

SPDR Portfolio Intermediate Term Treasury ETF

During Refinitiv Lipper's fund flows week ended July 27, 2022, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets (including both conventional funds and ETFs) for the third week in four, adding a net $6.1 billion. At the close of Refinitiv Lipper's fund flows week, U.S. broad-based equity indices traded positive for the fourth week in five - S&P 500 (+1.61%), Nasdaq (+1.13%), Russell 2000 (+1.12%), and DJIA (+1.01%).

U.S. Weekly Fund Flows Insight Report: Money Market Funds Realize Longest Weekly Inflows Streak Of The Year

GOVT and IJR witnessed massive trading volume yesterday.

2 ETFs to Watch for Outsized Volume on S&P 500 Small-Cap and U.S. Treasury Bonds

Vanguard Real Estate ETF

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

These four investments are all you need to bankroll your nest egg.

4 ETFs That Are All You Need for Retirement

This article shows why the small-cap sector is the most attractive sector now. We then examine two small-cap funds closely so investors can best play this opportunity: the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF.

IJR And IWM: Small-Cap Is The Most Attractive Sector Now

The broad market via SPDR S&P 500 is down more than 12% this year. Growth stocks generally are having a tough time in 2022 to no small degree due to the reversal of fortunes of tech shares.

Dividend Yield Factor Offers Port In Equity Storm This Year

IJR is a popular ETF choice for investors looking to gain exposure in the small-cap space. Small-cap equities, and IJR more specifically, trade at a discount compared to the broader market.

IJR: Examining The Attractiveness Of Small-Caps

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF

In the last trading session, Wall Street was extremely downbeat.

2 ETFs to Watch for Outsized Volume on Small-Cap & TIPS

The yield spread between the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) and risk-free rates is at a very attractive level currently.

IJR And Small-Caps: 2nd Best Buying Opportunity In A Decade

SPDR S&P 600 Small Cap ETF

SPDR Portfolio Small Cap ETF

Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 ETF

Vanguard Russell 2000 ETF

The Russell 2000 has beaten its bigger peers in the past week.

Why Small-Cap ETFs Won in February & May See Success in March

Schwab U.S. Small-Cap ETF

As the economy rebounds from the Covid-19 pandemic, small-capitalization stocks and related exchange traded funds are not recovering as quickly in the face of ongoing financial concerns, supply chain hurdles, and hiring problems. Year-to-date, the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) fell 7.3%, Schwab U.S. Small-Cap (NYSEArca: SCHA) dropped 9.5%, iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) fell [.

Small-Cap ETFs Could Continue to Struggle in Lingering Post-Pandemic Recovery

News for iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF ETF (IJR)