A sound investment process and strong management team underpin BlackRock Short Duration Bond ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Bronze. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the second-lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's sensible investment philosophy merits an Above Average Process Pillar rating, after recently upgrading from Average. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in corporate bonds and BBB rated bonds compared with category peers. 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

Morningstar's evaluation of this fund's process seeks to understand management's investment philosophy, and whether it has been applied consistently over time and can add value across the market cycle. BlackRock Short Duration Bond ETF earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.    The most important driver of the rating is the fund's strong long-term risk-adjusted performance. This can be seen in its five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. The parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 59% also bolsters the process. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. Their impressive success ratio suggests that the firm does well for investors and that this fund may benefit from that. Lastly, the process is limited by being an actively managed strategy. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that actively managed funds have generally underperformed their passive counterparts, especially over longer time horizons.

 Compared with other funds in the Ultrashort Bond Morningstar Category, this fund, historically, hews closely to peers' credit and interest-rate sensitivity over the past few years. Opening the analysis to additional factors, the portfolio has displayed biases over time, whether towards or away from certain fixed-income instruments. Relative to the category average, the managers have been significantly overweight corporate debt in recent years. In the latest month, the strategy has relatively overweighted corporate debt compared with its peers as well. Additionally, there's been a notable overallocation to BBB rated bonds over the past few years. Compared with category peers, the strategy had more exposure to BBB rated bonds in the most recent month. Finally, during the past few years, the fund leaned towards debt with 10- to 15-year maturities. In this month, the strategy also leaned more towards debt with 10- to 15-year maturities compared with its peers.

 This strategy's 12-month yield is 4.8%, which is near its average peer. It also has a 5.1% 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity). The portfolio's average surveyed credit quality is on par with peers, with both the fund and the average being rated A.

Above Average

Process

BlackRock Short Duration Bond ETF earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. Scott MacLellan, CFA, CMT’s veteran status, with 16 years of listed portfolio management experience, brings a wealth of experience to the table. The average Morningstar Rating of the strategies they currently manage is 2.7 stars, demonstrating underwhelming risk-adjusted performance. The team boasts an experienced corps of listed portfolio managers, with four others supporting Scott MacLellan, CFA, CMT. Together, they average 10 years of listed portfolio management experience.  The team has not run into any turnover issues, with similar management retention to peers. However, the most recent documented departure was 11 months ago. None of the portfolio managers here invest in this fund. This hurts the rating because manager investment would align their interests with the strategy's investors.

 Note: The People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. The longest-tenured manager of the fund also manages a different product rated by an analyst. Their analyst-assigned People Pillar rating is combined here with the People scores (algorithmic or analyst-assigned) for the fund’s other managers on a tenure-weighted basis.

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 Short Maturity Bond ETF

NEAR aims to maximize income and preserve capital using very short maturity, USD-denominated global fixed income securities in an actively-managed fund.

NEAR provides active management to a portfolio of USD-denominated fixed- and floating-rate debt securities with investment grade rating and of varying maturities. It aims for a three years or less effective duration while seeking total return.

The ETF has transformed itself from a cash-like fund to one holding riskier assets with a higher duration profile of 1.92 years. NEAR's price sensitivity has increased due to its extended duration. The fund is positioned to benefit if interest rates decrease. Despite the increase in the fund's duration, the credit profile for the name is very benign, with most holdings falling in the AAA or AA ratings band.

NEAR: Revisiting This BlackRock Fund After The Mandate Change (Rating Upgrade)

BlackRock Short Duration Bond ETF is an actively managed fund with low credit and interest rate risk. The NEAR fund aims to meet the current income needs of its unitholders, by investing in short-term, USD denominated securities. We had previously rated the NEAR ETF as a Buy.

Not So NEAR To Our Heart Anymore As Distribution Cuts Loom (Rating Downgrade)

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The health of the $7 trillion U.S. ETF remains strong, with many advisors and investors pairing ETFs with other investments and new entrants joining the market. BlackRock remains the industry leader and has expanded its lineup with innovative strategies in 2023.

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The week ending November 3, 2023, saw a good number of new ETFs enter the market as well as several closures. In all, there were 14 new ETFs including launches from Defiance, First Trust, Innovator, Roundhill, ProShares, John Hancock, Kingsbarn Capital Management, Dimensional and SRH Funds.

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The ultra short-term corner of the bond market has been hitting a 52-week high lately.

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For investors seeking momentum, BlackRock Short Maturity Bond ETF NEAR is probably on radar. The fund just hit a 52-week high and is up 1.8% from its 52-week low price of $48.99/share.

Short-Term Bond ETF (NEAR) Hits New 52-Week High

The iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF is changing its investment policy and collateral, increasing its duration and credit risk. NEAR currently has a higher dividend yield than risk-free assets and a 30-day SEC yield above short-dated treasuries.

NEAR: Ceasing To Be A Cash Parking Vehicle

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Bridgewater Associates' founder Ray Dalio said he prefers cash and does not want to own bonds, as quoted on CNBC.

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iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF is an actively managed ETF, and its cyclical attributes challenges the influence of duration on risk reduction. The ETF's allocation suggests it is bullish on cyclical sectors, yet it remains neutral on the credit outlook. An option-adjusted spread decrease has provided NEAR ETF a helping hand. However, questions remain about the metrics of sustainability.

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Some cash-like ETFs hit a 52-week high lately as the Fed might hike rates further this year.

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NEAR: Yield Goes Vertical To 6%

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Active ETFs represent just a 6% share of the ETF markets, but advisors are gravitating toward them. The products have emerged as one of the fastest-growing categories within the ETF industry.

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Funds investing in short-term Treasury bonds may be the best ETFs for investors in today's seesawing markets. The post Short-Term Treasury Rates Boost Appeal Of Bond ETFs appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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The rise in short-term interest rates this year has increased the yields of cash-like assets. In this article, we highlight the benefits of having a cash management portfolio strategy and why cash assets look fairly attractive now.

Cash Comes Back From The Dead With Attractive Yields

It has been over a year since we looked at MINT, JPST and NEAR. These relatively lower volatility funds focus on short and ultra-short-term debt maturities.

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Ahead of aggressive Federal Reserve monetary policy changes, fixed income investors could turn to ultra short-duration bonds or cash-like exchange traded fund strategies that are relatively less vulnerable to interest rate risks. Investors who are seeking cash substitutes may look to actively managed, ultra-short-duration bond ETFs that are more free to adapt holdings in a [.

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NEAR is a short term corporate bond fund used to enhance the yield on parked cash.

Cash Is Better Than NEAR At The Moment

Cash is trash. We examine forward yields on two popular cash parking ETFs.

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NEAR is a BlackRock ETF composed of short duration fixed income instruments (combination of IG bonds & ABS).

Keep Your Cash NEAR You Via This Short Duration Bond ETF

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Last year we talked about places one could park cash while waiting out volatility.

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As concerns mount over the spike in coronavirus cases in Europe and potential tax hikes to offset the latest stimulus package spending, U.S. money market funds have experienced a big surge in demand. Investors seeking to park their money in cash alternatives can also consider ultra-short-duration bond exchange traded funds.

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BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is dropping the famous iShares brand from three of the firm's actively managed fixed income ETFs. Those funds are as follows: the BlackRock Short Maturity Bond ETF (NEAR), BlackRock Short Maturity Municipal Bond ETF (MEAR), and BlackRock Ultra Short-Term Bond ETF (ICSH).

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The issuer is splitting its ETFs between the iShares and BlackRock brand names.

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The war on cash has left many casualties. Notable on that list is a set of ETFs earning virtually nothing.

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On Thursday, iShares released three new transparent actively managed ETFs, and an index ETF offer client choice and flexibility to access BlackRock’s best thinking on long-term, transformative growth trends. These funds are the first active transparent ETFs from BlackRock’s Fundamental Active Equity portfolio managers.

News for iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF ETF (NEAR)