iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF

C000157307 Fund Overview

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF is a US ETF managed by iSHARES TRUST, categorised as Money Market. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.

• Type: US ETF
• Manager: iSHARES TRUST
• Category: Money Market
• Assets under management: $1.43M
• SEC CIK: 0001100663
• SEC series ID: S000049796
• Share class ID: C000157307

C000157307 Investment Objective and Strategy

iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by iSHARES TRUST.

Investment objective

The iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of large- and mid-capitalization Italian equities while mitigating exposure to fluctuations between the value of the euro and the U.S. dollar.

Principal investment strategy

The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the MSCI Italy 25/50 100% Hedged to USD Index (the Underlying Index), which consists of stocks traded primarily on the Milan Stock Exchange with the currency risk inherent in the securities included in the Underlying Index hedged to the U.S. dollar on a monthly basis. The Underlying Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization-weighted index with a capping methodology applied to issuer weights so that no single issuer of a component exceeds 25% of the Underlying Index weight, and all issuers with a weight above 5% do not cumulatively exceed 50% of the Underlying Index weight. The Underlying Index may include large- and mid-capitalization companies. As of August 31, 2017, a significant portion of the Underlying Index is represented by securities of energy, financials and utilities companies.

The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, are likely to change over time. Currently, the Fund achieves its investment objective by investing a substantial portion of its assets in the Underlying Fund. BFA uses a passive or indexing approach to try to achieve the Funds investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to beat the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.

BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund and the Underlying Fund. Representative sampling is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities or other instruments comprising an applicable underlying index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of an applicable underlying index. The Fund and the Underlying Fund may or may not hold all of the securities and other components of the Underlying Index. The Fund generally will invest at least 90% of its assets in the component securities (including indirect investments through the Underlying Fund) and other instruments of the Underlying Index and in investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the component securities of the Underlying Index (i.e., depositary receipts representing securities of the Underlying Index) and may invest up to 10% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index.

Components of the Underlying Index include equity securities and foreign currency forward contracts (both deliverable and non-deliverable) designed to hedge non-U.S. currency fluctuations against the U.S. dollar. The notional exposure to foreign currency forward contracts (both deliverable and non-deliverable) generally will be a short position that hedges the currency risk of the equity portfolio. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before fees and expenses of the Fund. The Underlying Index sells forward the total value of the non-U.S. dollar denominated securities included in the Underlying Index at a one-month forward rate to effectively create a hedge against fluctuations in the relative value of the euro in relation to the U.S. dollar. The hedge is reset on a monthly basis.

The Underlying Index is designed to have higher returns than an equivalent unhedged investment when the euro is weakening relative to the U.S. dollar. Conversely, the Underlying Index is designed to have lower returns than an equivalent unhedged investment when the euro is rising relative to the U.S. dollar. In order to replicate the hedging component of the Underlying Index, the Fund intends to enter into foreign currency forward contracts designed to offset the Funds exposure to the euro. A foreign currency forward contract is a contract between two parties to buy or sell a specified amount of a specific currency in the future at an agreed-upon exchange rate. The Fund's exposure to foreign currency forward contracts is based on the aggregate exposure of the Fund to the euro. While this approach is designed to minimize the impact of currency fluctuations on Fund returns, it does not necessarily eliminate the Funds exposure to the euro.

The return of the foreign currency forward contracts may not perfectly offset the actual fluctuations in value between the euro and the U.S. dollar. The Fund may also use non-deliverable forward (NDF) contracts to execute its hedging transactions. An NDF is a contract where there is no physical settlement of two currencies at maturity. Rather, based on the movement of the currencies and the contractually agreed-upon exchange rate, a net cash settlement will be made by one party to the other in U.S. dollars. The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund's total assets (including the value of any collateral received). The Underlying Index is sponsored by MSCI Inc. (the Index Provider or MSCI), which is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities and currency forwards in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index.

Industry Concentration Policy. The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities) and repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.

C000157307 Costs and Fees

C000157307 costs about $49 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.

• Net expense ratio: 0.49%
• Gross expense ratio: 1.11%
• Portfolio turnover: 8%
• Brokerage commissions: 0.62 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)

C000157307 Cashflows

Over the 12 months to 2020-05, iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF had net inflows of $0, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.

C000157307 Debt Constituents

No individual debt constituents are reported in iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

C000157307 Prospectus and SEC Filings

Official iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.

• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2020-01-17
• Prospectus supplement (497) — filed 2020-09-08
• Prospectus supplement (497) — filed 2019-01-17
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2020-07-29
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2020-04-27
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2020-01-28
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2019-11-14
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2018-11-14

Related Funds

Other Money Market funds tracked on ABC INVEST:

• Emerald Growth Fund (HSPCX)
• Barings Active Short Duration Bond Fund (BXDIX)
• IVA Worldwide Fund (IVWAX)
• Stadion Tactical Growth Fund (ETFDX)
• BBH Partner Fund - Select Short Term Assets (BBSTX)

Data Sources

ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.