iShares NASDAQ 100 ETF USD Acc (EUR) | CNDX

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|20/06/2024

by Monika Calay
IShares Nasdaq 100 ETF is a flawed index strategy whose superb track record conceals holes in its construction.

The construction rules of the Nasdaq-100 Index, which this fund fully replicates, are borne out of Nasdaq's desire to promote its exchange rather than investment rationale. The benchmark absorbs the 100 largest nonfinancial firms listed on the Nasdaq and weights them by market capitalization. It excludes stocks listed elsewhere, shrinking the fund's opportunity set for no economic reason. Some large-cap tech stocks that otherwise fit the Nasdaq-100 mold, like Salesforce CRM and Oracle ORCL, are turned away because of their New York Stock Exchange listing. And should one of the fund's marquee holdings move from the Nasdaq, the fund would have to sell it.

Though not a tech fund by design, pulling exclusively from the tech-laden Nasdaq makes this fund look like one. It favors the technology (half the portfolio as of March 2024), communications (16%), and consumer cyclicals (13%) sectors that all feature at least tech-adjacent companies. Over the past five years, those sectors represented an average 83% of the portfolio—14 percentage points more than the Russell 1000 Growth Index. Firms within these sectors can look quite different. But the sectors tend to be on the volatile side, and their heterogeneous makeups don't guarantee resilience in risk-off markets like 2022, when the fund slid further than the Russell 1000 Growth Index, and most large-growth peers.

The fund weights stocks by market capitalization, a sensible approach. Market-cap-weighting channels the market's consensus opinion on each stock's relative value. In the large-cap market, wide investor attention means that opinion tends to be well-informed.

Cap-weighting and a limited scope can make this fund top-heavy, even with modifications designed to reduce concentration. However, the strategy can enact special rebalances to spread the wealth when needed. It did just that in July 2023, shrinking its seven largest holdings from 55% to 43% of the portfolio.

 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™A technology-centric portfolio of US large-cap companies.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAbove Average
ParentAbove Average
ProcessBelow Average
 
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
In order to provide consistency across the report data provided by different Asset Managers, the calculated data points presented are generated using Morningstar’s proprietary calculation methodology which is set out in more detail at(https://www.morningstar.com/research/signature)
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