iShares Core 1-5 Year USD Bond ETF
$47.30−0.20 (−0.43%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.06%
- Fund size
- $5.1B
- 1Y return
- +1.5%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 4.33%
- Holdings
- 7482
- Volume · 30D
- 0.5M sh
- NAV per share
- $47.47
- 52W range
The ETF.net ISTB Grade
Score 77 of 100 sits in the A band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.AScore 89Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.Not scoredRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 47Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 80Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 79Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 90Category rank
Our read on ISTB
AThe Agg with the long end trimmed off, plus a dash of high yield. ISTB tracks a broad USD bond index that stops at five-year maturities, so you get core bond plumbing with a fraction of the rate sensitivity, for six basis points.
The fund seeks to track an index of U.S.-dollar bonds rated investment grade or high yield, with remaining maturities from one to five years.
Why people hold it
- Six basis points a year, a fraction of the typical broad bond ETF fee. On a bond fund, every basis point of fee comes straight out of the income you keep.ishares.com
- The index casts a wider credit net than the Agg: investment grade plus high yield, thousands of individual bonds deep.ishares.com
- Nothing in the index matures past five years, so the portfolio carries far less interest-rate sensitivity than full-maturity core bond funds like BND, SPAB or SCHZ.ishares.com
- Running since 2012, multi-billion-dollar, actively traded, and it pays income monthly rather than quarterly.
Worth knowing
- The high yield sleeve adds credit risk that investment-grade-only short bond funds skip.ishares.com
- Short maturities cut both ways: smaller price swings when rates rise, and less lift when they fall.
- Not a cash substitute. The share price moves daily, and maturing bonds get replaced at whatever rates prevail, so the monthly payout drifts.ishares.com
ISTB Holdings
- Bonds
- 7,482
- 9%
- TREASURY NOTE 3.88% 06/15/2028
Sectors
- Utilities99.4%
- Real Estate0.6%
Geography
- United States96.10%
- Saudi Arabia0.70%
- China0.58%
- United Arab Emirates0.56%
- Turkey0.25%
- Qatar0.23%
- Hong Kong0.19%
- Kuwait0.11%
- 1.27%
ISTB Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | ISTB |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +0.3% |
| 1 month | −0.7% |
| 3 months | −0.2% |
| 1 year | +1.5% |
| 3 years | +4.9% |
| 5 years | +1.8% |
| 10 years | +2.2% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | ISTB |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +0.3% | |
| 2025 | +6.4% | |
| 2024 | +4.4% | |
| 2023 | +5.6% | |
| 2022 | −6.1% | |
| 2021 | −0.7% | |
| 2020 | +4.8% |
ISTB in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on ISTB yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
ISTB Dividends
- 4.33%
- $2.06
- $0.18 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | Sep 4, 2026 | $0.18 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Aug 6, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Jul 7, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | Jun 4, 2026 | $0.17 |
| May 1, 2026 | May 6, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | Apr 7, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Mar 2, 2026 | Mar 5, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Feb 2, 2026 | Feb 5, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Dec 24, 2025 | $0.17 |
| Dec 1, 2025 | Dec 4, 2025 | $0.17 |
| Nov 3, 2025 | Nov 6, 2025 | $0.17 |
| Oct 1, 2025 | Oct 6, 2025 | $0.17 |
ISTB Risk
- 2.4%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.14
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −9.2%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.39
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
ISTB Cost
- The middle half of Short-Term Core Bond funds
- Median 0.25%
1 of the 12 Short-Term Core Bond funds charge less.