Should You Invest in the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA)?
Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market, the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 05/01/2006.
An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.
Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Industrials - Aerospace & Defense is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 2, placing it in top 13%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $8.23 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market. ITA seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index before fees and expenses.
The Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index measures the performance of the aerospace and defense sector of the U.S. equity market.
Costs
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
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 0.58%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector--about 99.80% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Ge Aerospace (GE) accounts for about 20.55% of total assets, followed by Rtx Corp (RTX) and Boeing (BA).
The top 10 holdings account for about 75.18% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, ITA return is roughly 28.85%, and it's up approximately 41.16% in the last one year (as of 07/07/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $132.81 and $188.64.
The ETF has a beta of 0.86 and standard deviation of 18.70% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 40 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.
繼續閱讀Alternatives
IShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, ITA is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.
SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR) tracks S&P Aerospace & Defense Select Industry Index and the Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (PPA) tracks SPADE Defense Index. SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF has $3.60 billion in assets, Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF has $5.73 billion. XAR has an expense ratio of 0.35% and PPA charges 0.57%.
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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iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA): ETF Research Reports
The Boeing Company (BA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
GE Aerospace (GE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (PPA): ETF Research Reports
SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR): ETF Research Reports
RTX Corporation (RTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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