Spooked by fears of another uptick in market volatility led by previously high-flying growth stocks, some investors are embracing value fare.
Some investors have been turning to value exchange traded funds, such as the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF (NYSEArca: IWD), which saw a massive influx of new assets last week.
“The $38 billion iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF, ticker IWD, took in around $1.1 billion last week, the third most since the fund started trading in May 2000,” reports Bloomberg. “And its previous highs were from rebalances in 2007 and 2014 that were part of the annual reconstitution by Russell indexes.”
IWD seeks to track the investment results of the Russell 1000® Value Index, which measures the performance of large- and mid- capitalization value sectors of the U.S. equity market. IWD generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the underlying index and in depositary receipts representing securities of the underlying index.
Inside IWD
IWD holds over 700 stocks and like many value strategies, the fund is heavily allocated to the downtrodden financial services sector. That sector accounts for over 22% of the fund’s weight compared to 15.56% for healthcare, the fund’s second-largest sector exposure.
“But the herding into value funds could be more of a gut reaction based on historical assumptions than a careful evaluation of which sectors to focus on. For example, financial stocks make up the largest allocation in IWD at 27 percent, meaning the fund may not be as defensive as expected considering the recent turmoil surrounding banks,” according to Bloomberg.
IWD entered Tuesday with a year-to-date decline of 6.65%. The ETF has a three-year standard deviation of 9.22%.
Value stocks usually trade at lower prices relative to fundamental measures of value, like earnings and the book value of assets. On the other hand, growth-oriented stocks tend to run at higher valuations since investors expect the rapid growth in those company measures, but more are growing wary of high valuations.
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