Should iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF (IWP) Be on Your Investing Radar?

Launched on July 17, 2001, the iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF (IWP) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $20.49 billion, making it the largest ETF attempting to match the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

Why Mid Cap Growth

Compared to large and small cap companies, mid cap businesses tend to have higher growth prospects and are less volatile, respectively, with market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion. These types of companies, then, have a good balance of stability and growth potential.

While growth stocks do boast higher than average sales and earnings growth rates, and they are expected to grow faster than the wider market, investors should note these kinds of stocks have higher valuations. Additionally, growth stocks have a greater level of risk associated with them. When you consider growth versus value, growth stocks are usually the clear winner in strong bull markets but tend to fall flat in nearly all other environments.

Costs

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.23%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.35%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Information Technology sector -- about 31.9% of the portfolio. Industrials and Healthcare round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Snowflake Inc (SNOW) accounts for about 2.46% of total assets, followed by Datadog Inc Class A (DDOG) and Cloudflare Inc Class A (NET).

The top 10 holdings account for about 19.51% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

IWP seeks to match the performance of the Russell MidCap Growth Index before fees and expenses. The Russell Midcap Growth Index measures the performance of the mid-capitalization growth sector of the U.S. equity market. It is a subset of the Russell Midcap Index, which measures the performance of the mid-capitalization sector of the U.S. equity market & approximately 47% of the total market value of the Russell Midcap Index.

The ETF return is roughly 3.82% so far this year and it's up approximately 1.33% in the last one year (as of 08/06/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $123.62 and $146.41.

The ETF has a beta of 1.12 and standard deviation of 19.3% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 271 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, IWP is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

The iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF (IJK) and the Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Index Fund ETF Shares (VOT) track a similar index. While iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF has $11.03 billion in assets, Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Index Fund ETF Shares has $19.91 billion. IJK has an expense ratio of 0.17% and VOT charges 0.05%.

Bottom-Line

Passively managed ETFs are becoming increasingly popular with institutional as well as retail investors due to their low cost, transparency, flexibility and tax efficiency. They are excellent vehicles for long term investors.

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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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