New Kids On The Block: A Look At Some New iShares ETFs

A previous looks at some of 2011's new ETFs have focused on some of the smaller ETF issuers, but today we're heading in the opposite direction. BlackRock's BLK iShares is the world's largest ETF issuers. In the U.S., iShares had 220 ETFs with almost $444 billion in assets under management at the end of October. That's well above the firm's closest rival, State Street STT State Street Global Advisors, which had "just" 104 ETFs and $264.5 billion in AUM at the end of last month. Part of the recipe for retaining the throne as the world's largest ETF issuer is the introduction of new ETFs and iShares did plenty of that in 2011 and the firm did so across an array of assets classes – stocks, bonds, forex, etc. With that, let's look at five of the better new iShares that debuted in 2011. iShares High Dividend Equity Fund HDV Inception date: March 31 Year-to-date performance: 10% Average daily volume: 227,600 Investor Appeal Grade: A. HDV doesn't do anything noticeably than a lot of other dividend ETFs that are older, but investors want dividends and they want them badly. That much is highlighted by the fact that HDV is just nine months old and has almost $908 million in AUM. On the basis of performance and its AUM total, HDV is clearly one of 2011's best new ETFs. Period. iShares S&P Intl Preferred Stock Index Fund IPFF Inception date: November 15 Year-to-date performance: 0.5% Average daily volume: 11,200 Investor Appeal Grade: B+. Like so many ETFs tracking preferred issues, IPFF is heavily allocated to financials. In this case, over 84% of the ETF's weight is devoted to that sector. The newest member of this list, IPFF isn't even two months old, but an AUM total of almost $6.2 million in that time is impressive. iShares Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond ETF LEMB Inception date: October 18 Year-to-date performance: -2.7% Average daily volume: 1,800 Investor Appeal Grade: A. The non-dollar theme has proven prevalent with international bond ETFs in 2011 and LEMB has been no exception, raking in almost $29 million in AUM. As we previously noted LEMB has a long way to go to challenge the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Local Debt ETF ELD. A distribution yield of 3.7% is nice. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Minimum Volatility Index Fund EEMV Inception date: October 18 Year-to-date performance: 1.8% Average volume: 14,780 Investor Appeal Grade: B+. Investors love emerging markets, but that doesn't mean they have to love volatility and EEMV provides an outlet for the volatility-shy among us to still get a slice of emerging markets growth. This ETF is off to a decent start, but 2012 could see EEMV's validation or repudiation. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap Index Fund EEMS Inception date: August 16 Year-to-date performance: -17.2% Average daily volume: 1,770 Investor Appeal Grade: B. That grade is quite a feat given the ETF's performance, as is $32.5 million in AUM in what has been a miserable year for the combination of small-caps and emerging markets. Three countries – Taiwan, South Korea and India – account for 47% of the weight of this ETF. EEMS is clearly a survivor, but it has a lot of competition in this market niche.