BlackRock DYNF Soars to $7B from Near $0 in 2 Months

One of this year’s most popular ETFs is not a household name, but that could change if its current path upward continues. 

The BlackRock U.S. Equity Factor Rotation ETF (DYNF) has accumulated $6.7 billion of inflows in 2024, making it the sixth-most popular U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund by that measure. 

Despite its hefty inflows, the $7.1 billion ETF, which launched in 2019, is probably not that familiar to most investors.  

As recently as January, the fund had a mere $50 million in AUM, and the monster inflows that followed likely resulted from tweaks to BlackRock’s model portfolios rather than organic investor demand. 

But organic or not, DYNF is suddenly a large ETF, one that at least model portfolio managers at BlackRock see as a compelling investment. 

The actively managed fund seeks to outperform the broader markets by investing in stocks that look attractive based on style factors, including momentum, quality, value, size, and low volatility.  

The ETF emphasizes factors “with the strongest near-term return prospects,” according to the fund’s prospectus.  

Outperforming Russell 1000 

The result is an ETF that is currently overweight technology, financials and consumer discretionary relative to the broader stock market. 

DYNF is up 12.4% year-to-date, better than the Russell 1000’s 9.6% return. Over the past year, it’s also outperforming with a gain of 43% versus 33% for the Russell.  

Over the past five years, the fund has doubled, equal to the gain for the broader index. 

DYNF is the only factor-based fund among the 10 most popular ETFs of 2024 based on inflows. Just outside of the top 10 is the iShares S&P 500 Value ETF (IVE), which has picked up $4 billion of new money. 

But unlike DYNF, IVE is lagging this year, with a gain of 6%, around 400 basis points less than the S&P 500. Value stocks shined in 2022, when they fell less than other stocks, but they failed to build on that strength in 2023 and so far in 2024.