Launched on July 24, 2000, the iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF (IJJ) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Mid Cap Value segment of the US equity market.
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $8.77 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Value segment of the US equity market.
Why Mid Cap Value
Mid cap companies, with market capitalization in the range of $2 billion and $10 billion, offer investors many things that small and large companies don't, including less risk and higher growth opportunities. These types of companies, then, have a good balance of stability and growth potential.
While value stocks have lower than average price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, they also have lower than average sales and earnings growth rates. When you look at long-term performance, value stocks have outperformed growth stocks in nearly all markets. But in strong bull markets, growth stocks are more likely to be winners.
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 0.18%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.6%.
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 Financials sector -- about 23.6% of the portfolio. Industrials and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Reliance Steel & Aluminum (RS) accounts for about 1.16% of total assets, followed by Us Foods Holding Corp (USFD) and Wesco International Inc (WCC).
The top 10 holdings account for about 4.4% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
IJJ seeks to match the performance of the S&P MidCap 400 Value Index before fees and expenses. The S&P MidCap 400 Value Index measures the performance of the mid-capitalization value sector of the U.S. equity market. It is a subset of the S&P MidCap 400 and consists of those stocks in the S&P MidCap 400 exhibiting the strongest value characteristics.
The ETF has added roughly 12.12% so far this year and was up about 17.63% in the last one year (as of 07/21/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $122.57 and $149.29.
The ETF has a beta of 0.96 and standard deviation of 17.56% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 311 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, IJJ is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Value segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.
The iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF (IWS) and the Vanguard Mid-Cap Value Index Fund ETF Shares (VOE) track a similar index. While iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF has $15.57 billion in assets, Vanguard Mid-Cap Value Index Fund ETF Shares has $23.38 billion. IWS has an expense ratio of 0.23% and VOE charges 0.05%.
Bottom-Line
An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also 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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iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF (IJJ): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).