Designed to provide broad exposure to the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market, the iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on May 1, 2006.
Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.
Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Energy - Exploration is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 3, placing it in top 19%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $547.97 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market. IEO seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index before fees and expenses.
The Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization-weighted index. The Index includes companies that are engaged in the exploration for and extraction, production, refining, and supply of oil and gas products.
Costs
Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.38%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.02%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Energy sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Conocophillips (COP) accounts for about 19.61% of total assets, followed by Eog Resources Inc (EOG) and Valero Energy Corp (VLO).The top 10 holdings account for about 70.61% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF return is roughly 31.33% so far this year and it's up approximately 40.41% in the last one year (as of 06/02/2026). In that past 52-week period, it has traded between $85.18 and $128.99.
The ETF has a beta of 0.42 and standard deviation of 25.2% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 50 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.
Alternatives
iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production 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, IEO is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Energy ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.
Portfolio Building Block Integrated Oil & Gas and Exp and Prod Index ETF (PBOG) tracks BITA GLOBAL OIL & GAS SELECT INDEX and the State Street SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) tracks S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index. Portfolio Building Block Integrated Oil & Gas and Exp and Prod Index ETF has $522.41 million in assets, State Street SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF has $3.45 billion. PBOG has an expense ratio of 0.13%, and XOP charges 0.35%.
Bottom Line
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 U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).