Making its debut on 12/08/2014, smart beta exchange traded fund iShares MSCI ACWI Low Carbon Target ETF (CRBN) provides investors broad exposure to the World ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.
Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $849.88 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the World ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the MSCI ACWI Low Carbon Target Index before fees and expenses.
The MSCI ACWI Low Carbon Target Index is designed to address two dimensions of carbon exposure ? carbon emissions and potential carbon emissions from fossil fuel reserves.
Cost & Other Expenses
Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.20%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.
CRBN's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 1.77%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.
Looking at individual holdings, Apple Inc (AAPL) accounts for about 4.64% of total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT) and Amazon Com Inc (AMZN).
The top 10 holdings account for about 18.89% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the iShares MSCI ACWI Low Carbon Target ETF has added about 12.14% so far, and is up about 11.14% over the last 12 months (as of 11/13/2023). CRBN has traded between $136.68 and $161.60 in this past 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.95 and standard deviation of 16.87% for the trailing three-year period, making it a low risk choice in the space. With about 1200 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
IShares MSCI ACWI Low Carbon Target ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the World ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
IShares ESG Aware MSCI EAFE ETF (ESGD) tracks MSCI EAFE ESG Focus Index and the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU) tracks MSCI USA ESG Focus Index. IShares ESG Aware MSCI EAFE ETF has $6.91 billion in assets, iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF has $12.27 billion. ESGD has an expense ratio of 0.20% and ESGU charges 0.15%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the World ETFs.
Bottom Line
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iShares ESG Aware MSCI EAFE ETF (ESGD): ETF Research Reports
iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU): ETF Research Reports
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
