Should iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF) Be on Your Investing Radar?

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market, the iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on October 23, 2000.

The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $20.35 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.

Why Large Cap Blend

Companies that fall in the large cap category tend to have a market capitalization above $10 billion. Overall, they are usually a stable option, with less risk and more sure-fire cash flows than mid and small cap companies.

Typically holding a combination of both growth and value stocks, blend ETFs also demonstrate qualities seen in value and growth investments.

Costs

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 counterparts, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.2%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.85%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. 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 44% of the portfolio. Telecom and Financials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Nvidia Corp (NVDA) accounts for about 11.33% of total assets, followed by Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

The top 10 holdings account for about 51.79% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

OEF seeks to match the performance of the S&P 100 Index before fees and expenses. The S&P 100 Index measures the performance of the large-capitalization sector of the U.S. equity market. It is a subset of the S&P 500 and consists of blue chip stocks from diverse industries in the S&P 500 with exchange listed options & the Index represented approximately 45% of the market capitalization of listed U.S. equities.

The ETF has gained about 11.38% so far this year and is up about 17.25% in the last one year (as of 09/14/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $308.21 and $384.32.

The ETF has a beta of 1.03 and standard deviation of 15.76% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 105 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

iShares S&P 100 ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, OEF is a good option for those seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares (VOO) track a similar index. While iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $852.66 billion in assets, Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares has $1,046.26 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VOO charges 0.03%.

Bottom-Line

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

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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