IShares Russell 1000 ETF IWB offers a well-diversified, market-cap-weighted portfolio that captures the large- and mid-cap opportunity set while charging a low fee, a recipe for success over the long run. However, there are cheaper alternatives available. 

The fund tracks the flagship Russell 1000 Index, which selects the largest 1,000 US stocks—capturing roughly 93% of the US equity market. The index weights constituents by market cap after applying liquidity and investability screens to ensure the index is easier to track. 

The end portfolio is well-diversified and accurately resembles the US large- and mid-cap opportunity set available to active managers. This allows the strategy to mimic active peers while capitalizing on its low fee, ultimately delivering sound long-term performance on both an absolute and risk-adjusted basis. 

The bedrock of this strategy is market-cap-weighting, which harnesses the market's collective wisdom of the relative value of each holding with the added benefit of low turnover and associated trading costs. It's a sensible approach because the market tends to do a good job pricing large- and mid-cap stocks that make up this portfolio. Larger stocks attract liquidity and widespread investor attention, such that prices reflect new information quickly.  

However, when few richly valued companies or sectors power most of the market gains, market-cap-weighting may expose the strategy to stock- or sector-level concentration risk. As of January 2024, the top 10 holdings made up the largest portion of the Russell 1000 Index (29%) in several decades and the 30% allocation to technology stocks was the highest since the dot-com bubble. But this is not a fault in design, the Russell 1000 simply reflects the market composition. In the long run, its broad diversification, low turnover, and low fee outweigh these risks.

Analyst Rating

A formidable option for large-cap investors.

Associate Analyst

Mo'ath Almahasneh

Microsoft

Apple

NVIDIA

Amazon

Alphabet

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. - Ordinary Shares - Class B

Eli Lilly

JPMorgan Chase & Co

This fund accurately captures the large- and mid-cap opportunity set, and it keeps a lid on turnover by leveraging the market's collective wisdom to size its positions. It earns a High Process Pillar rating.

High

Process

BlackRock's industry-leading technology, global footprint, and extensive supporting cast earn an Above Average People Pillar rating. 

Portfolio managers interact with a wider team of traders and managers around the globe to execute the fund's day-to-day operations. The team is well supported by iShares' extensive internal index research group and centralized dealing desk. The larger number of managers also limits the impact of personnel turnover when it does occur. 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 fund is managed by the iShares US-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.

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 Russell 1000 ETF

IWB tracks a market-cap-weighted index of the 1000-largest US companies.

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market, the iShares Russell 1000 ETF (IWB) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 05/15/2000.

Should iShares Russell 1000 ETF (IWB) Be on Your Investing Radar?

The iShares Russell 1000 ETF is recommended as a buy due to its current mix of holdings and lower weight on overvalued companies. Vanguards Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund ETF is expected to outperform IWB due to its greater concentration on top performers. IWB has a competitive expense ratio and noteworthy dividend yield compared to other peer funds.

IWB: Still A Buy, But I Like This Other Russell 1000 ETF Better

Mega-cap tech stocks continue to drive the S&P 500 higher in 2023. Active managers are underweighting these stocks and are forced to buy them to improve their portfolios. The iShares Russell 1000 ETF (IWB) is a good investment option with strong seasonality and a reasonable valuation.

IWB: Mega-Cap Tech Powers US Large Caps Higher, Buy Into Year-End

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The IWB is a tech-focused slice of the US stock market with large-cap exposure. We are skeptical around the AI boom and there are concerns about monetizing AI due to copyright issues that can affect long-term prospects. Long-term rates and deglobalization are important factors that have an outsized real impact on fair values in tech.

IWB: Mixed Picture On Economy

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How Does Multifactor ROUS Stack Up Against IWB?

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IWB owns a portfolio of 1,000 largest stocks in the United States. Although slightly inferior, the fund has comparable performance to the S&P 500 Index.

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Trading activity on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace reached EUR 47.8 billion in December, while the proportion of transactions processed via Tradeweb's Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool was 80%. Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in December 2022 amounted to USD 54.7 billion. Overall trading activity for the year was nearly USD 630 billion, a 106% increase from 2021.

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iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF

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Trading activity on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace reached EUR52.3 billion in November. Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in November 2022 amounted to USD 52.4 billion, the platform's fifth-best performance on record.

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Vanguard Russell 3000 ETF

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Trading activity on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace amounted to EUR 49.7 billion in September. Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in September 2022 reached USD 51 billion.

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iShares Transportation Average ETF

In the last trading session, Wall Street was extremely downbeat. Among the top ETFs, SPY declined 0.8%, DIA retreated about 0.5% while QQQ moved 0.6% lower on the day.

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iShares Core S&P Small Cap 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.

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Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF

iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF

Throughout June, trading activity on Tradeweb European ETF marketplace reached EUR 55.1b, while the proportion of transactions processed via Tradeweb's Automated Intelligent Execution tool was 82.8%. All asset classes saw net selling for the second consecutive month. Activity in commodity ETFs, where ‘sells' outstripped ‘buys' by 34 percentage points, increased to 8% of the total platform flow in June.

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iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF

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JPMorgan BetaBuilders Japan ETF

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iShares TIPS Bond ETF

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More than EUR 39 billion was executed on the Tradeweb European-listed ETF marketplace during October, while the proportion of transactions completed via Tradeweb's Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool rose to 76.5%. Commodity-based ETFs saw net selling for the third consecutive month, while activity in the asset class increased to 7% of the overall traded volume.

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ProShares UltraPro QQQ

Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund

During Refinitiv Lipper's fund flows week ended November 3, 2021, investors were overall net purchasers of fund assets for the third week in a row, adding $991 million. At the close of Refinitiv Lipper's fund-flows week, U.S. broad-based indices all reported positive results for the second week in three.

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Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund

Trading activity on the Tradeweb European-listed ETF marketplace amounted to EUR 29.4 billion in August, while the proportion of transactions completed via Tradeweb's Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool was 71.4%. Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in August 2021 reached USD 21.3 billion.

News for iShares Russell 1000 ETF ETF (IWB)