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an hour ago
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This BlackRock ETF Could Soar 12,770%, According to Billionaire Michael Saylor
BlackRock introduced an incredibly popular ETF early in 2024 that now has over $70 billion in assets. The price of the asset this ETF owns could rise almost 12,800% in 20 years, according to billionaire Michael Saylor. 10 stocks we like better than iShares Bitcoin Trust › Michael Saylor, the tech entrepreneur who founded the enterprise software provider Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy), has a net worth estimated at $9.3 billion. In the past few years, his focus has shifted to Bitcoin, the world's most valuable cryptocurrency. Saylor's business is now accumulating huge amounts of the digital asset. Based on his view that Bitcoin could skyrocket to $13 million per unit by 2045, Saylor is also implying that this popular exchange-traded fund (ETF), sponsored by giant asset manager BlackRock, also has 12,770% upside from today's price. Here's what investors need to know if they are even remotely interested in boosting their portfolio returns. No one can deny that Bitcoin has been the best-performing asset over the past decade, a period that saw its price soar by 41,820%. Investors who missed the boat might want to heed Saylor's forecast. The billionaire believes that Bitcoin will reach $13 million in 20 years, using his base case. As of June 23, it's trading at $101,000, so Saylor's prediction implies a 129-fold gain. The crypto has a fixed supply of 21 million coins. Saylor believes this key feature will make the digital asset more widely held in the future. In theory, capital will flow from other asset classes -- like bonds, equities, and real estate -- into Bitcoin. The base case calls for 7% of global wealth to find its way to the digital token, strong demand that will drive the price higher. Investors must realize that while this kind of price target gets a lot of attention, since it shows an annualized return of 27.5%, it's important to understand that no one knows what the future will hold. This is especially true with something like Bitcoin, which is still a relatively new phenomenon in the world of finance. At the end of the day, what really matters is if you're bullish on Bitcoin or not. Michael Saylor is perhaps the biggest Bitcoin bull ever. In 2020, following the onset of the pandemic and the unprecedented levels of government stimulus, Saylor completely altered his company's blueprint, with the sole intention of buying and holding as much Bitcoin as possible. Strategy now owns 592,000 Bitcoins, making it the single biggest non-ETF holder in the world. In a seminal moment for the crypto industry, the Securities and Exchange Commission finally approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024. These products were a monster hit, but the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ: IBIT) quickly became the most successful. As of June 23, 2025, it had $71 billion in assets. This ETF owns Bitcoin. As a result, its price is meant to track the price movement of the crypto. However, it's crucial that investors know that by owning the ETF, they don't directly own the digital coin. That might not matter, given that the ETF provides accessibility and convenience in a regulatory-compliant way. Investors can buy the iShares Bitcoin Trust in their traditional brokerage accounts. Even better, there's no need to open a wallet or account specifically for cryptocurrencies. This draws capital from investors who want a seamless option. There is a cost, but it's low at an expense ratio of 0.25%. For institutional investors like hedge funds, pension funds, or sovereign wealth funds, this is a small price to pay for operating within their mandates. At least they now have access to a wildly successful investment opportunity. Should Bitcoin one day reach Saylor's $13 million price prediction by soaring 12,770% in 20 years, the iShares Bitcoin Trust should also register a similar gain. Before you buy stock in iShares Bitcoin Trust, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and iShares Bitcoin Trust wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $704,676!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $950,198!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 Neil Patel has positions in iShares Bitcoin Trust. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This BlackRock ETF Could Soar 12,770%, According to Billionaire Michael Saylor was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Business
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BlackRock Launches New Global Government Bond Hedged ETF
BlackRock launched a new exchange-traded fund Thursday designed to offer investors exposure to a globally diversified portfolio of government bonds. The iShares Global Government Bond USD Hedged Active ETF (GGOV) uses a currency hedge on the non-U.S. bonds that seeks to raise the yield on those exposures when the U.S. policy rates are elevated relative to their global counterparts, according to a press release. GGOV is managed by the BlackRock Tactical Asset Allocation team, and its benchmark index is the Bloomberg Global Treasury USD Hedged Index. The expense ratio is 0.39%. USD-hedged global government bonds have historically produced higher yields with lower volatility versus comparable U.S.-only bond indices, Tom Becker, lead portfolio manager of GGOV, said via the press release. BlackRock determined that this type of diversified global fixed-income exposure—particularly with a foreign exchange (FX) hedge where there is pure exposure to a diversified set of sovereign issuers across the world—would be an attractive access point for a lot of investors who have a large home bias, Becker told The firm saw that it could 'combine what would be a differentiated benchmark and starting point with a strong experience of delivering alpha for clients,' he said. There's also much more concern now about the size of the government deficits and inflation, Becker added. GGOV may help investors limit some of the risk they'd see with a portfolio of only U.S.-focused fixed-income investments. BlackRock's iShares global fixed-income ETF business hit the $1 trillion mark in September 2024 as the Federal Reserve's earlier rate hikes had investors turning to bonds. GGOV is joining BlackRock's $52 billion-plus U.S. active ETF platform. The world's largest asset manager is expecting the fixed-income ETFs overall to reach $6 trillion in assets under management by 2030, if not sooner, according to its annual outlook published in | © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved
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15 hours ago
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New ETF Filing Aims to Capitalize on 'Government Grift'
A provocative new ETF filing aims to capitalize on what it bluntly calls 'government grift.' The Tuttle Capital Government Grift ETF (GRFT) was filed with the SEC this week and proposes a strategy built around tracking the investment activity of U.S. political insiders, including members of Congress and individuals close to the president. According to the prospectus, the fund 'is grounded in the belief that political actors … can influence market outcomes or possess information that materially affects security pricing.' GRFT would scan public disclosures, including STOCK Act filings (known as Periodic Transaction Reports or PTRs), which require members of Congress to report securities trades made by themselves or their spouses. These are filed within 30 to 45 days of a transaction and are available to the public. Tuttle's strategy would systematically download, aggregate and rank these filings based on historical excess returns over three years. Individuals with the most consistent outperformance would have their trades analyzed to estimate current implied holdings. Stocks most frequently bought by these top traders would be considered for inclusion in the portfolio. But GRFT doesn't stop at Congress. The fund would also seek to invest in companies with 'demonstrated ties to Presidential influence.' That includes firms with executives or directors affiliated with the current administration or businesses that receive praise from the president. The manager would also monitor real-time presidential commentary—speeches, tweets, interviews—and adjust exposure accordingly using ETFs or derivatives. The fund plans to hold a concentrated portfolio of 10 to 30 positions, which may include common stocks, ETFs or total return swaps. Position size would reflect both the scale of congressional trading and the perceived materiality of presidential backing. In times of uncertainty or political opacity, GRFT could hold up to 100% of its assets in cash or Treasurys. GRFT builds on a theme popularized by the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF (NANC) and the Unusual Whales Subversive Republican Trading ETF (GOP), which invest in stocks purchased by Democrat and Republican members of Congress, respectively. But while NANC and GOP are also actively managed and base their portfolios on trades disclosed by sitting members of Congress, they tend to be more systematic in nature and hold broader baskets of between 100 to 200 stocks, compared to GRFT's more concentrated and discretionary approach. By combining congressional trades with presidential sentiment analysis, GRFT introduces more subjectivity into its strategy. Whether that works in practice remains to be seen. Since launching in February 2023, NANC has returned 66%, outpacing the S&P 500's 54% gain over the same period. GOP, by contrast, has lagged with a 35% return. GRFT isn't Tuttle Capital's first foray into unconventional strategies. The firm previously launched the Inverse Cramer Tracker ETF (SJIM) and the Long Cramer Tracker ETF (LJIM), which sought to bet against or follow CNBC host Jim Cramer's stock picks. Those funds garnered a lot of buzz but ultimately struggled with execution, largely due to the difficulty of systematically tracking and trading on a fast-talking TV personality's evolving takes. Both were eventually shut down. GRFT could face similar challenges if its strategy proves too discretionary or difficult to implement. But with retail investors increasingly skeptical of political elites, the concept is bound to turn | © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved
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17 hours ago
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ETF Flows Set for Record; Big Money Enters High-Risk Funds
U.S. exchange-traded fund flows are on track to break records again in 2025, with $1.2 trillion projected to pour into the market despite modest performance by stocks and bonds, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence midyear outlook report. The relentless appetite for ETF products has persisted even as U.S. stocks have posted volatile performance and gained around 3% year to date. Bonds have also gained roughly 3% as well, the report showed. The continued surge in ETF flows demonstrates how the product has become a default vehicle for investors regardless of market conditions, driven by innovation in active management and crypto products alongside sustained demand for cheap beta exposure, Bloomberg Intelligence Analysts Eric Balchunas and Athanasios Psarofagis said. ETF flows usually slow when markets cool but not this year. A steady stream of cash is going into gold and cash-like ETFs too, according to the outlook. Another reason flows are so robust is that active management has entered the market in full, adding to steady, passive flows. The products as a group are taking in 40% of net flows despite holding only 10% of the assets, the analysts found. Most of the flows are going to active equity, a category that was dormant for the first 20 years that ETFs existed, according to the report. The best-selling active funds this year include a diverse group of covered call, CLO and thematic ETFs. Some high-risk active ETFs are also pulling in "big money," such as the YieldMax MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF (MSTY) and the Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares (TSLL), the report found. Beyond the flows, more than 900 ETFs may launch this year, crushing last year's record of just over 700. Nearly 90% of this year's launches are active, Bloomberg Intelligence data show. This year, 16% of ETF launches have been some form of a single-security strategy that uses either leverage or options overlays, according to the outlook. Retail trades made up about 20.5% of U.S. equity volume in the first quarter, up from 17% a year earlier. While the average fee across the ETF industry is around 59 basis points, single-stock strategies command a premium, averaging 91 basis points, according to the report. For those with leverage or derivatives overlays, fees often exceed 100 basis points. Assets in leveraged long ETFs have nearly returned to their record $101 billion, highlighting the strong risk appetite still present among investors, the research | © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
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a day ago
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RDVY Is a Popular Dividend ETF for Passive Income. But Is It the Best?
The First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF tracks the corresponding Nasdaq index. Those 50 stocks deliver both stable earnings growth and steady dividends. But it might not be the best ETF for passive income investors. 10 stocks we like better than First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI - First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF › When it comes to passive income, many investors often flock to the stocks with the highest dividend yields. But the companies that pay the highest dividends might also have the least room to grow because there's nowhere left to invest their excess cash. That's why some stocks that pay lower dividends could outperform higher-yielding ones over the long term. So to get the right balance of growth and income, investors should look for dividend growth stocks (companies that consistently hike their payouts while growing their earnings) instead of merely buying the stagnant ones with the highest yields. One popular exchange-traded fund (ETF) that focuses on dividend growth is the First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF (NASDAQ: RDVY). Let's take a closer look at its strategies and see if it could be the best ETF for passive income. As its name says, the ETF tracks the Nasdaq US Rising Dividend Achievers Index, which comprises 50 stocks that meet four criteria. First, a company's trailing-12-month dividends must exceed its dividends over the past three- and five-year periods. Second, its latest trailing-12-month earnings per share (EPS) must exceed its trailing EPS from three years ago. Third, a company must have a cash-to-debt ratio of more than 50% while maintaining a payout ratio no greater than 65%. Lastly, it must be ranked among the top 1,000 Nasdaq stocks by market capitalization and have an average three-month dollar trading volume of at least $5 million. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are excluded from this list. The Nasdaq US Rising Dividend Achievers Index holds only 50 stocks at any given time, but it rebalances its portfolio by swapping out about 25% of its holdings each quarter. That staggered approach allows it to reconstitute its entire portfolio over the year without abruptly changing out all of its stocks. The First Trust ETF follows those same quarterly rebalancings. When it rebalances its portfolio, the stocks that have the longest streak of annual dividend hikes, the highest dividend yields, and the lowest payout ratios rise to the top. As of this writing, its top holdings include eBay, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Bank of New York Mellon, and JPMorgan Chase. The Rising Dividend Achievers fund promotes itself as dividend growth ETF, but its 12-month distribution rate of 1.67% is pretty low for an income ETF. By comparison, the popular Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF -- which tracks the more conservative Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index -- pays a much higher trailing-12-month distribution of 3.97%. The Rising Dividend Achievers ETF is more volatile than traditional dividend ETFs like Schwab's because it holds a higher mix of mid- to large-cap growth stocks with rising earnings instead of slower-growth dividend stalwarts. The First Trust ETF's total expense ratio of 0.48% is also high compared to Schwab's ratio of 0.06% and that of many other dividend-focused ETFs. The Rising Dividend Achievers ETF might charge higher fees and pay lower dividends than its peers, but it has still rallied 170% over the past decade and delivered an impressive total return of 224% after reinvesting those dividends. By comparison, the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF's price only rose 103% and delivered a total return of 179%. It also outperformed other conservative dividend funds like the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF and the iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF. Therefore, the Rising Dividend Achievers ETF's focus on companies with consistent earnings growth, reasonable payout ratios, and rising dividends seems to be paying off. The Rising Dividend Achievers ETF is attractive for investors who want a good blend of growth and income. But it still unperformed the S&P 500's total return of 239% over the past decade, so it would have been easier to simply buy a low-cost S&P 500 ETF instead. It certainly isn't the "best" ETF for retirees to generate passive income. Its low yield makes it unappealing for passively covering monthly living costs, its high expense ratio erases nearly a third of its yield, and it's more volatile than other dividend ETFs. Investors who are interested in the First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF should recognize those flaws before pressing the "buy" button. Before you buy stock in First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI - First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI - First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $687,731!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $945,846!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 818% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Leo Sun has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF, and eBay. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. RDVY Is a Popular Dividend ETF for Passive Income. But Is It the Best? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
