Stock Market News

Take a Global View with This ETF

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes O’Shares ETF Investments highlighting its three year anniversary of founding and launch of the O'Shares Global Internet Giants ETF (NYSE Arca: OGIG). Chairman Kevin O’ Leary, Chairman, joined by Doug Younes, Head of Exchange Traded Products at the NYSE, rings The Opening Bell®.

The iShares Global Comm Services ETF (IXP) is an investment vehicle that holds a range of global companies in media, social media, entertainment, search, video gaming and telecommunications industries.

The exchange-traded fund’s (ETF) holdings include companies at a variety of market-cap levels, though larger companies tend to be the targets of the lion’s share of its assets. Each of these industries is a mover and shaker, with some routinely seeing new developments on the leading edge of the cultural milieu.

IXP has struggled in the past 12 months, which may present interested investors with an appealing entry opportunity. In that period, the fund is down 28.23%, noticeably worse returns than those offered by the broader market. That means these are beaten-down stocks and sectors that could post strong gains if they were to return to their year-ago levels.

IXP’s 2023 performance has been nicely positive, causing it to nearly reach its 200-day moving average (MA), as the chart below shows. IXP last touched its 200-day MA in late 2021.

Before then, the ETF was performing impressively, nearly doubling between April 2020 and September 2021. A return to that form would be accretive for investors.

Chart courtesy of www.StockCharts.com

The expense ratio of this fund currently sits at 0.40%. Its current dividend yield is 1.43%. The ETF’s net assets total $209.9 million, which makes the fund relatively small, but still popular enough to consider investing in it.

Plus, 63.43% of the fund’s assets are in U.S.-based companies. The remainder offer global exposure primarily to China and Japan, along with a smattering of others. Top holdings of IXP include Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL/GOOG), with its two different share classes combining for 20.14%; Meta Platforms Inc. (META), 9.05%; Tencent Holdings Ltd., 8.58%; The Walt Disney Company (DIS), 5.42%; and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), 4.72%. It is important to note that with shares of Google making up 20% of assets, the performance of that company has a large impact on this fund’s price.

Investors curious about global companies involved in media, social media, entertainment, search, video gaming and telecommunications industries may wish to consider iShares Global Comm Services ETF (IXP) as a potential portfolio enhancer.

As always, I am happy to answer any of your questions about ETFs, so do not hesitate to send me an email. You just may see your question answered in a future ETF Talk.

Jim Woods

Jim Woods is a 20-plus-year veteran of the markets with varied experience as a broker, hedge fund trader, financial writer, author and newsletter editor. Jim is the editor of Intelligence Report, Investing Edge, the Bullseye Stock Trader, and The Deep Woods (formerly the Weekly ETF Report). His books include co-authoring, “Billion Dollar Green: Profit from the Eco Revolution,” and “The Wealth Shield: How to Invest and Protect Your Money from Another Stock Market Crash, Financial Crisis or Global Economic Collapse.” He’s also ghostwritten many books and articles, as well as edited content for some of the investment industry’s biggest luminaries. His articles have appeared on many leading financial websites, including StockInvestor.com, InvestorPlace.com, Main Street Investor, MarketWatch, Street Authority, Human Events and many others. Jim formerly worked with Investor’s Business Daily founder William J. O’Neil, helping to author training courses in the CANSLIM stock-picking methodology. The independent firm TipRanks rates Jim the No. 3 financial blogger in the world (out of more than 6,000). TipRanks calculates that, since 2012, he's made 361 successful recommendations out of 499 total, earning a success rate of 72% and a +15.3% average return per recommendation. He is known in professional and personal circles as “The Renaissance Man,” because his expertise includes such varied fields as composing and performing music; Western horsemanship, combat marksmanship, martial arts, auto racing and bodybuilding. Jim holds a BA in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a former U.S. Army paratrooper. A self-described “radical for capitalism,” he celebrates the virtue of making money from his Southern California horse ranch.