Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Consumer Staples ETF (IYK)?

The iShares U.S. Consumer Staples ETF (IYK) was launched on 06/12/2000, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Consumer Staples - Broad segment of the equity market.

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. Consumer Staples - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 12, placing it in bottom 25%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.51 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Staples - Broad segment of the equity market. IYK seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Goods Index before fees and expenses.

The Russell 1000 Consumer Staples RIC 22.5/45 Capped Index measures the performance of the consumer goods sector of the U.S. equity market.

Costs

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.40%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.42%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Staples sector--about 87.70% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Materials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Procter & Gamble (PG) accounts for about 14.86% of total assets, followed by Coca-Cola (KO) and Philip Morris International Inc (PM).

The top 10 holdings account for about 66.63% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IYK has added roughly 8.98%, and is up about 9.15% in the last one year (as of 06/04/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $63.29 and $72.42.

The ETF has a beta of 0.58 and standard deviation of 12.64% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 60 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares U.S. Consumer Staples 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, IYK is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Consumer Staples ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (VDC) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Staples 25/50 Index and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) tracks Consumer Staples Select Sector Index. Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF has $7.67 billion in assets, Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF has $16.46 billion. VDC has an expense ratio of 0.09% and XLP 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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