Launched on 07/10/2017, the Inspire Corporate Bond ETF (IBD) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

Products that are based on market cap weighted indexes, which are strategies designed to reflect a specific market segment or the market as a whole, have traditionally dominated the ETF industry.

A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.

But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.

The smart beta space gives investors many different choices, from equal-weighting, one of the simplest strategies, to more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting. However, not all of these methodologies have been able to deliver remarkable returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is sponsored by Inspire. It has amassed assets over $490.18 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETFs. IBD seeks to match the performance of the Inspire Corporate Bond Impact Equal Weight Index before fees and expenses.

The Inspire Corporate Bond Index selects domestic corporate bonds issued by companies that are large capitalization companies, which have an Inspire Impact Score of zero or higher.

Cost & Other Expenses

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

With one of the most expensive products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.41%.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 4.27%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.

Taking into account individual holdings, Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. 4.9 12/15/30accounts for about 2.22% of the fund's total assets, followed by Amphenol Corp. 4.35 06/01/29 and Cboe Global Markets Inc. 3.65 01/12/27.

IBD's top 10 holdings account for about 21.94% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, IBD has lost about -0.09%, and was up about 2.44% in the last one year (as of 08/10/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $23.53 and $24.37.

The fund has a beta of 0.20 and standard deviation of 5.42% for the trailing three-year period. With about 251 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

Inspire Corporate Bond ETF is not a suitable option for investors seeking to outperform the Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are other ETFs in the space which investors should consider.

Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF Shares (ESGV) tracks FTSE US ALL CAP CHOICE INDEX and the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU) tracks MSCI USA ESG Focus Index. Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF Shares has $13.67 billion in assets, iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF has $18.35 billion. ESGV has an expense ratio of 0.09% and ESGU changes 0.15%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETFs

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit

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Inspire Corporate Bond ETF (IBD): ETF Research Reports

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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