Creates Lowest-Price Style Box Offering in the Industry with iShares Morningstar U.S. Equity Style Box ETFs
$7.5bn suite overhauled with lower fees, new tickers, indices, fund names, investment objectives, and share splits
Two decades ago, iShares set out to spearhead the industry in style investing by providing investors with simple and efficient access to the distinct performance characteristics of size and valuation.
“By launching the new index family licensed by BlackRock for iShares ETFs, we seek to empower investors to make better informed style investing decisions. We are pleased that BlackRock’s iShares ETFs make the iconic Morningstar Style Box even more accessible to investors”
Reflecting iShares’ commitment to this critical segment of the market, fee reductions will be made effective today to the iShares Morningstar U.S. Equity Style Box ETFs, positioning the suite as the lowest cost style box ETF family in the industry. The revamped suite featuring a combination of new indices from Morningstar, new tickers, new fund names, updated investment objectives, share splits, and lower pricing could equate to a successful formula for iShares.
“iShares ETFs have democratized investing for millions of Americans and the actions taken today demonstrate our relentless pursuit of this principle,” said Armando Senra, Head of iShares Americas at BlackRock. “We are on a mission to offer competitive and compelling choices so that every type of client, from do-it-yourself investors, portfolio model builders, to advisors and institutions, can benefit from the quality of our products and our willingness to use the scale of our platform to help provide better solutions and outcomes. The longstanding collaboration with Morningstar reinforces our value proposition and reflects our steadfast commitment to continue to be a leader in style box investing.”
New Morningstar Indexes represent broader investment opportunities
In January, Morningstar launched the Morningstar® Broad Style Indexes, which are designed to more accurately represent the size and style dimensions of the U.S. equity market with greater flexibility. The underlying data and methodology of the indexes are designed to be consistent with the Morningstar Style Box™, making the indexes a natural complement for informing style-related investment decisions. The Morningstar Broad Style Indexes complement Morningstar’s existing lineup of style indexes.
“By launching the new index family licensed by BlackRock for iShares ETFs, we seek to empower investors to make better informed style investing decisions. We are pleased that BlackRock’s iShares ETFs make the iconic Morningstar Style Box even more accessible to investors,” said Ron Bundy, president, Morningstar Indexes. “The recently launched Morningstar Broad Style Indexes are powered by Morningstar’s independent analysis and give investors more flexible access to the broad market while maintaining their desired style exposure and provide exceptional value by lowering the cost of benchmarking.”
Lowering the hurdles to style investing
Over the past 20 years and through market cycles, growth and value ETFs have become ubiquitous foundational building blocks for investors to construct and adjust the essential components of their U.S. equity portfolios. In the current market environment, for example, value has outperformed growth, with value up 8.9% and growth down 3.7%– a stark contrast to 2020, when growth significantly outperformed value.2 This divergence in performance underpins the continued importance and relevance of style investing.
“The iShares Morningstar U.S. Equity Style Box ETFs make it easy for investors to build style-oriented portfolios at an incredible value,” said Chad Slawner, Head of iShares US Product at BlackRock. “We are excited to make enhancements to this robust product suite. Through benchmark changes, share splits and fee reductions we can help lower the hurdles to investing, increase portfolio flexibility, and broaden market coverage so that clients have access to, with as few as two ETFs, 99.5% of the U.S. stock market.”
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