ETF Spotlight on iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (NYSEArca: EFA), part of an ongoing series.
Assets: $38.1 billion.
Objective: The iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund tries to reflect the performance of publicly traded securities in the European, Australasian and Far Eastern Markets, as tracked by the MSCI EAFE Index.
Holdings: Top holdings include: Nestle SA 1.9%, HSBC Holdings (NYSEArca: HSBC) 1.5%, BP PLC (NYSE: BP) 1.4%, Vodafone Group (NasdaqGS: VOD) 1.3% and Royal Dutch Shell 1.3%.
What You Should Know:
- BlackRock’s iShares ETF division sponsors the fund.
- EFA has an expense ratio of 0.34%.
- The fund has 929 holdings and the top ten components make up 13.2% of the fund.
- Sector allocations include: financials 22.6%, industrials. 12.7%, consumer staples 11.0%, consumer discretionary 10.5%, materials 10.2%, health care 9.3%, energy 8.8%, telecommunications 5.4%, information technology 4.6% and utilities 4.4%.
- Country allocations include: U.K. 22.4%, Japan 21.8%, France 8.7%, Australia 8.5%, Switzerland 8.4%, Germany 8.2%, Sweden 3.1%, Spain 3.0%, Hong Kong 2.8% and the Netherlands 2.6%.
- EFA has a 12-month yield of 3.28%.
- The fund is down 1.7% over the past month, up 4.4% over the last 3 months and down 11.1% over the past year.
- The ETF is 0.3% above its 200-day exponential moving average.
- “Because EFA does not hedge its currency exposure, its returns reflect both asset price changes and changes in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and other currencies,” according to Morningstar analyst Patricia Oey.
The Latest News:
- The Eurzone is still facing some challenges, such as avoiding complacency, reinvigorating the economy while reducing debt and preventing national politics from destroying the Euro bloc, according to Fin24.
- Greece has avoided a default as it secured a second international bailout and a deal with private creditors to reduce the debt. [Europe ETFs Hopeful on Greek Debt Swap Execution]
- “There is a strong possibility that the crisis is moving from a very hot phase into a cold phase. Does that mean it is over? Not at all. There are still lots of dangers,” Janis Emmanouilidis, senior fellow at the European Policy Centre think-tank, said in the article.
- According to Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist of Credit Suisse in Japan, the Japanese economy is still stuck in a recession, reports Majirox News.
- Experts point to the high Japanese government debt, aging population and ongoing deflation as key obstacles.
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund
For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.