Which Aerospace and Defense ETF Is the Better Buy: iShares' ITA or First Trust's MISL?

Sara Appino, The Motley Fool

Sat, July 18, 2026 astatine 10:18 AM CDT 4 min read

iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT:ITA) provides a lower-cost introduction to the sector, portion First Trust Indxx Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT:MISL) offers a unsocial tilt by including defense-related exertion firms.

Investors seeking vulnerability to the aviation and defence industries often look to specialized ETFs to seizure sector-specific growth. Aerospace and defence ETFs connection vulnerability to nationalist information budgets and commercialized aviation cycles. This investigation compares 2 fashionable options that disagree successful scale, cost, and humanities performance.

Snapshot (cost & size)

Beta measures terms volatility comparative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from monthly returns implicit the disposable money past (up to 5 years). The 1-yr instrumentality represents full instrumentality implicit the trailing 12 months. Dividend output is the trailing-12-month organisation yield.

The iShares money is the much affordable enactment with an disbursal ratio of 0.38% compared to the 0.60% charged by the First Trust fund. The iShares money besides provides a higher payout, with a 0.50% yield.

Performance & hazard examination

What's wrong

The iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT:ITA) aims to replicate the concern show of a circumstantial marketplace scale composed of U.S.-based companies successful the aviation and defence industries. Its largest positions see GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) astatine 22.37%, RTX (NYSE:RTX) astatine 15.69%, and The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) astatine 9.20%. It holds 49 stocks and is concentrated wholly successful the industrials sector. iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF has paid $1.06 per stock implicit the trailing 12 months, which connected its caller ~$230.89 stock terms works retired to a 0.50% yield. The money was launched successful 2006.

The First Trust Indxx Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT:MISL) aims to reflector the Indxx US Aerospace & Defense Index by allocating astatine slightest 80% of its assets to the benchmark components. Its apical holdings see GE Aerospace astatine 8.85%, Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) astatine 8.28%, and The Boeing Company astatine 7.77%. It holds 49 securities crossed industrials (80%) and exertion (13%). First Trust Indxx Aerospace & Defense ETF has paid $0.14 per stock implicit the trailing 12 months, which connected its caller ~$42.72 stock terms works retired to a 0.30% yield. It was launched successful 2022.