iShares Russell 2000 Growth Index (ETF) (AMEX:IWO)

nino347 (< 20) Submitted: 8/15/2008 7:14:40 PM : Start Price: $79.13 IWO Score: +6.44

Small caps are not given enough credit. This etf beats the S & P and most of my stocks. Compare it to your growth stocks and I believe you'll be surprised.

NetscribeETF (37.64) Submitted: 3/19/2007 2:30:15 AM : Start Price: $76.17 IWO Score: -14.98

The iShares Russell 2000 Growth Index Fund comprises of the small capitalization growth sector of the U.S. equity market. The index represents approximately 50% of the Russell 2000 Index that have high price to book value with the highest growth forecast. Endorsing the same it trades at a price to book value of around 3.56 and price to earnings multiple hovering around 45.

Unlike other funds where financial services dominate the show, Consumer Discretionary tops the allocation accounting for more than one fifth of the corpus. Pharmaceuticals of the Health care sector remain a bright spot with expectations of increase in the approval of new molecular entities in 2007. Biotechnology does not seem to have much catalyst whereas the surge in aging population favors the managed health care services. Technology sector comprises mainly of the semiconductor companies and whose business are exposed to Internet technologies, fighting hard for market share with intense pricing pressures. However majority of the individual components does not have a robust product or service presence across all profile and whose performance relies on a single factor making it a real cause of concern. Expectation of rising oil price due to geo political tensions favor certain stock while is detriment to utilities and material processing sectors.

The past returns of the fund has been mediocre with average annualized returns for the past five years at 6.68% trailing majority of its competitors. This is mainly due to the huge exposure in smaller, speculative technology stocks that got hit during the 2000-02 bear market. Moreover it has caught the attention of the speculators making it more volatile as measured by standard deviation and not so superb expense ratio. In conclusion the fund does not seem to be a good gauge of the small cap growth stock and chances of beating the market look dim.

Neb52 (51.43) Submitted: 2/8/2007 6:09:36 PM : Start Price: $79.46 IWO Score: -13.84

This is an EFT that tracks the Russell 2000 Growth index. I expect a significant slowdown or mild recession before the end of 2007. Therefore this EFT should go down and possibly more then then the S&P 500.