IShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF IXUS captures nearly all of the international stock market for a low fee. It earns a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold.

The fund tracks the MSCI ACWI ex USA Investable Market Index. It targets small-, mid-, and large-cap stocks from most overseas markets, pulling in around 4,300 names. The final portfolio weights its holdings by market cap, which harnesses the market’s collective wisdom of each stock’s intrinsic value. This approach also helps mitigate turnover and the associated trading costs. The market tends to accurately price stocks over the long-term. From time to time it may chase stocks or sectors that are in vogue. This potentially leaves the portfolio exposed to overvalued parts of the market.

Diversification is a strength of this portfolio owing to the expanded scope of its target index. Its 10 largest holdings account for just 9% of its assets, with no single position weighing in at more than 2%. This fund includes emerging-markets stocks and thereby captures the entire opportunity set available to active managers. Long-term performance should benefit from its superior diversification.

Portfolio composition largely reflects the typical foreign large-blend Morningstar Category peer, and low fees should promote strong category-relative performance. However, its advantage has been middling. It narrowly beat the category average over the trailing 10 years ended October 2022, with comparable volatility. Risk-adjusted returns were identical for the period. But low fees and superior diversification put the fund in a position to expand its long-term advantage.

Analyst Rating

Low-cost access to the entire international market.

Associate Analyst

Zachary Evens

National Energy Services Reunited

ASML Hld

Moelis

Shell PLC

Novan

AstraZeneca

Rogers

TotalEnergies SE

BHP Billiton

SAP SE

The fund captures nearly the entire opportunity set available to active managers in the foreign large-blend category. It provides investors with a broadly diversified basket of foreign stocks while effectively minimizing turnover. It earns a High Process Pillar rating. 

The managers use representative sampling to track the MSCI ACWI ex USA Investable Market Index. The large-cap segment is almost fully replicated, with smaller stocks being sampled in an effort to minimize trading costs and turnover. This practice should not materially affect fund performance.

Index constituents must pass a number of screens to be included in the portfolio. To begin, this benchmark sorts all stocks listed outside of the United States by their free-float-adjusted market cap. It targets firms that land in the top 99% of this group, with a buffer around that threshold to mitigate unnecessary turnover. Additional liquidity screens ensure the investability of its holdings, making the index easier to track. The index weights the final list of around 4,300 stocks by market cap. It reconstitutes semiannually in May and November and makes smaller adjustments at additional quarterly reviews in February and August, such as adding recent IPOs.

High

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 iShares team had some turnover over the past few years. But index-tracking performance should remain tight, thanks to heavily automated processes and several long-tenured managers that remain at the helm. Paul Whitehead replaced Alan Mason as a manager in January 2022, when Mason left to focus on the firm's customized institutional indexing capabilities. Whitehead joins Greg Savage, Jennifer Hsui, and Amy Whitelaw, who will continue to oversee this fund and have helped manage iShares ETFs since the early 2000s.

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.

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 Total International Stock ETF

IXUS tracks a market-cap-weighted index of global stocks covering 99% of the global market capitalization outside the US.

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The iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF is currently fairly valued but not cheap, according to the Warren Buffett Indicator. Persistent inflation and the Federal Reserve's potential continuation of rate hikes may pose headwinds for IXUS's performance. Investors are advised to wait on the sidelines before initiating a position in IXUS.

IXUS: Valuation Fair But Not Cheap Enough

iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF has a low-yielding portfolio that invests 60 percent of its assets in four potentially growth-generating sectors - ICT, healthcare, financial, and healthcare. IXUS's portfolio invests in major stock markets outside the U.S., and its major investments have performed exceptionally well over the past six months.

IXUS: Global Equity Funds Have Higher Growth Prospects Than U.S. Ones

We are seeing the ripple effects of concerns about the banking industry across markets as of today, with Europe taking a latent hit after Asia and the US. This is what the monetary authorities wanted: a credit crunch to cool off the economy. Banks are going to be tightening credit standards now that they're being seen as fragile.

IXUS: No One Hides From A Credit Crunch

If the US economy is going to slow down, let your money work for you internationally. My technical analysis framework based on Trend Flow, Support/Resistance Location, and False Breakout Traps suggests a hold outlook IXUS currently, but I am on the watch for bullish reversals.

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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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IXUS has declined about in line with most US market indices, consistent with general market jitters. International stocks trade at a discount, but our concern is that FX is an incremental problem since the USD is advantaged in a rate-hike environment.

IXUS Gives You Geographic Diversification, But Worry About Forex

IXUS invests in international stocks outside of the United States. The fund is highly diversified with well over 4,000 holdings.

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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 [.

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IXUS invests in a broad group of international (non-U.S.) stocks. Based on forward earnings estimates, the implied cost of equity is higher than what we would fairly expect. Returns of over 10% per annum are implied.

IXUS: International Stocks Are Undervalued

IXUS is a large fund with 1,000s of holdings across the world. The fund invests in both developed and emerging markets.

IXUS: International Equities Are Probably Undervalued

IXUS is well positioned given its sector exposures, but it is a highly diversified fund and does not seem to offer an opportunity for alpha. Based on conservative assumptions, IXUS is probably fairly valued, and hence constructive earnings in the medium- to long-term will enable IXUS to continue to rally.

IXUS Is Well Positioned But Probably Fairly Valued

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Trading activity on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace reached EUR 36.3 billion in December. Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in December 2020 reached USD 14.7 billion.

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With major banks forecasting a rebound for the global economy, now's a good time to give international exposure a closer look. That can be achieved with funds like the iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF (IXUS), which essentially puts the whole world in your portfolio's hands.

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Notional volume executed on the Tradeweb European-listed ETF marketplace reached EUR 30.7 billion in September. Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in September 2020 amounted to USD 12.2 billion.

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By Michael Lane, Head of iShares US Wealth Advisory for BlackRock The debate about international investing has raged for decades, on a range of topics including diversification benefits, how riskier companies in less developed countries can provide opportunities for greater returns, and how investors in countries around the world may make the mistake of assuming [...]
The post Looking overseas: The case for international investing appeared first on ETF Trends.

Looking overseas: The case for international investing

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News for iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF ETF (IXUS)