iShares Morningstar Small-Cap Growth ETF

iShares Morningstar Small-Cap Growth ETF (ISCG) is an index fund. It tracks the Morningstar US Small Cap Broad Growth Extended Index, which holds smaller US companies whose sales and earnings have grown faster than average. Its 0.06% expense ratio is lower than all but one similar fund, below the 0.19% peer average and Vanguard's VBK at 0.07%. The trade-off is big swings: the fund lost 26.65% in 2022.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, ISCG returned +10.3%, 8th of 9 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +4.9%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-26.8%); its best was 2023 (+23.1%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 37.8% (Nov 8, 2021 to Jun 16, 2022), recovered by Nov 11, 2024.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 928 securities; the ten largest made up 5.61% of assets. It also reported 9.83% in a money-market fund, most likely cash collateral from lending out shares rather than uninvested money.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $9.9M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +3.53%, +4.67%, -4.36%.

The fund follows the Morningstar US Small Cap Broad Growth Extended Index. Morningstar builds the index and is independent of BlackRock, which manages the fund. Morningstar starts with a broad index that covers about 99.5% of the value of US stocks. It counts as small-cap the stocks that generally sit between the 90th and 99.5th percentile of market value. Small is relative here: the largest company in the index was worth $64.43 billion as of April 30, 2026. Morningstar then sorts these stocks into growth, value or blend. Growth stocks are those with higher than average past and forecast growth in earnings, sales, book value and cash flow.

Each stock is weighted by the value of its shares that are publicly available to trade, so bigger companies count for more. With 928 holdings, no single stock dominates. As of July 31, 2026, the largest holding, Okta, was 0.77% of the fund, followed by Guardant Health and Roku. The top 10 together made up 5.61%. Healthcare, industrials and technology made up a large share of the index as of April 30, 2026.

BlackRock uses representative sampling. This means the fund may not own every stock in the index but aims for a portfolio with similar traits. At least 80% of net assets must be in index stocks. The fund may use derivatives such as stock index futures and may lend up to one-third of its assets to other investors. The prospectus lists a 43% portfolio turnover rate.

• ISCG charges 0.06% a year, versus an average of 0.19% for the similar funds below (2nd of 9, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $6 in the first year and $77 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It adds smaller, fast-growing US companies at a very low cost, but its deep drops and tiny yield make it a poor fit as the center of a retirement portfolio.

ISCG adds fast-growing smaller US companies that large-company funds hold little of. It is cheap: under the SEC's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $6 in fees over one year and $77 over 10 years. It is not an income fund. The trailing 12-month yield was 0.66% as of October 27, 2026, paid quarterly. Its swings are large. It fell 21.51% in the first quarter of 2020, and 2022 was its worst calendar year of the last decade, at minus 26.65%. Its deepest drop in the available price history was 37.8%, from November 2021 to June 2022. Recovery took about 29 months. Figures for 2008 aren't available here. Anyone who had to sell shares during a year like 2022 would have locked in losses. Past results don't predict future ones, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports.