AMZA vs IEO

AMZAFInfraCap MLP ETF

IEOBiShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF

In short

AMZA Most of the oil-and-gas aisle buys drillers through an index. AMZA runs a tight book of energy-infrastructure MLPs (the toll roads hydrocarbons travel on) and pays monthly. The boutique option in its cohort, priced like one.

IEO One of the original ways to own U.S. upstream energy: since 2006 this iShares fund has tracked a single index of about 50 American oil and gas exploration and production stocks. Pure upstream, pure U.S.

Stated mandate

AMZA The Fund seeks total return mainly through equity securities of publicly traded MLPs and partnership-taxed LLCs, with at least 80% of assets normally invested in MLPs operating in energy infrastructure.

IEO The Fund seeks to track an index of U.S. equities in the oil and gas exploration and production sector. It uses a sampling-based indexing approach and normally invests at least 80% of net assets in components of the Underlying Index.

Why people hold it

• AMZA Mandate keeps at least 80% of assets in MLPs operating energy infrastructure, so the exposure leans toward pipelines and storage rather than the wellhead economics most peers track.
• Distributions arrive monthly rather than quarterly, a cadence income-focused holders tend to want from an MLP sleeve.
• Trading since 2014, so it has run through a full energy cycle instead of showing up after the rebound. The book stays tight, roughly two dozen partnerships.

• IEO Tight mandate: at least 80% of net assets sit in components of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index. Upstream U.S. energy, not a mixed energy basket.ishares.com
• About 50 holdings: concentrated enough to move with drilling economics, broad enough that one blown-up producer is not the whole story.
• Trading since 2006, so its index record spans multiple oil cycles, with the iShares platform running the plumbing.
• Producer dividends are passed along on a quarterly schedule.

Worth knowing

• AMZA The fee is the headline trade-off: 1.72% a year, several times the typical charge among oil-and-gas ETFs in its cohort.
• It trades thinly for its size. Limit orders and calm-market execution matter more here than with the cohort's heavily traded index funds.
• Roughly two dozen names in one corner of one sector means single-partnership news lands hard. On our review it sits in the back of its peer group.

• IEO The 0.37% fee sits right at the middle of the E&P shelf: XOP and OIH charge 0.35%, PBOG 0.13%.
• One country, one sector, about 50 stocks. Crude and gas price swings pass straight through to the portfolio.
• Moderately traded rather than the busiest ticker in the category, which can matter on larger orders.

Full AMZA profile⁠

Full IEO profile⁠