BUL vs IMCG

BULDPacer US Cash Cows Growth ETF

IMCGAiShares Morningstar Mid-Cap Growth ETF

In short

BUL Growth stocks that actually generate cash. BUL screens the growth half of the S&P 900 and keeps about 50 names that clear free cash flow and quality tests, Pacer's Cash Cows logic pointed at growth.

IMCG Growth investing usually means megacaps. IMCG works the middle of the market instead: roughly 300 mid-cap growth names, indexed since 2004, for six basis points a year.

Stated mandate

BUL The Fund seeks capital appreciation by tracking the Pacer US Cash Cows Growth Index, which screens the S&P 900 Pure Growth Index and selects leading companies using free cash flow yield and quality criteria.

IMCG The Fund seeks to track an index of U.S. mid-capitalization equities with growth characteristics. Its strategy uses representative sampling and generally invests at least 80% of assets in securities from the Underlying Index.

Why people hold it

• BUL Cash flow is the gate, not the story. The index starts from S&P 900 pure growth names and keeps only those clearing free cash flow and quality screens.paceretfs.com
• Deliberately concentrated: about 50 holdings, so the screen actually shows up in the portfolio instead of getting diluted by hundreds of names.
• Live since 2019 and pays shareholders quarterly, with a published rules-based index behind every rebalance.

• IMCG 0.06% a year, one third of the 0.18% median for its growth-fund peer group. Mid-cap indexing at large-cap-index prices.
• The growth leaderboard is stacked with large-cap funds (VUG, SCHG, SPYG, VONG). IMCG covers the middle instead, holding about 300 mid-cap growth names.
• Sticks close to the Morningstar mid-cap growth index it follows, one of the tighter tracking jobs in its peer group.
• Running since 2004 under the iShares roof, with a multi-billion-dollar asset base behind it.

Worth knowing

• BUL Cost is the trade-off: 0.60% a year, versus roughly 0.18% for the typical US growth fund and a few basis points at VUG or SCHG.
• Thinly traded compared with the category's giants, so spreads and order size deserve more attention here.
• A rules screen means it can look very different from a plain growth index in any given stretch, for better or worse.

• IMCG Moderately traded rather than heavily traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the megacap growth ETFs sitting beside it in the category.
• This is a size-and-style bet. Mid-cap growth companies tend to move more sharply than the broad market, in both directions.
• Distributions land quarterly, but a growth screen is not built around income.

Full BUL profile⁠

Full IMCG profile⁠