Looking for broad exposure to the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market? You should consider the iShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF (EUFN), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 01/20/2010.
While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.
Sector ETFs are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Financials - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 3, placing it in top 19%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $3.26 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Broad segment of the equity market. EUFN seeks to match the performance of the MSCI Europe Financials Index before fees and expenses.
The MSCI Europe Financials Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure the combined equity market performance of the financials sector of developed market countries in Europe.
Costs
When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.48%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 4.09%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Looking at individual holdings, Hsbc Holdings Plc (HSBA) accounts for about 7.88% of total assets, followed by Allianz (ALV) and Zurich Insurance Group Ag (ZURN).
The top 10 holdings account for about 41.13% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the iShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF has added roughly 31.16% so far, and it's up approximately 38.36% over the last 12 months (as of 05/07/2025). EUFN has traded between $21.54 and $30.56 in this past 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.95 and standard deviation of 21.26% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 94 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
IShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, EUFN is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Financials ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.
Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Financials 25/50 Index and the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) tracks Financial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Financials ETF has $11.57 billion in assets, Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $49.40 billion. VFH has an expense ratio of 0.09% and XLF charges 0.08%.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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iShares MSCI Europe Financials ETF (EUFN): ETF Research Reports Autoliv, Inc. (ALV): Free Stock Analysis Report Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF): ETF Research Reports Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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