IEF Dividend: Next Ex-Date, History & Total Return

The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) seeks to track the ICE U.S. Treasury 7-10 Year Bond Index, which is composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities between seven and ten years. BlackRock describes the fund as a way to gain targeted exposure to intermediate-term government debt. The fund pays distributions monthly.^1,2

Its adviser, BlackRock Fund Advisors (BFA), invests at least 90% of the fund's assets in U.S. Treasury securities that it believes will help the fund track the index, and at least 80% in the index's component securities. The fund may put no more than 10% of its assets in futures, options and swaps contracts that BFA believes will help it track the index.¹

BFA manages IEF with representative sampling, which means buying a sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the index. In the aggregate, the securities BFA selects are expected to have characteristics similar to the index's, such as duration (an instrument's price sensitivity to a change in interest rates), maturity or credit ratings. The fund may or may not hold every bond in the index.¹

IEF's index includes publicly issued, fixed-rate, U.S. dollar Treasury securities with a remaining maturity between seven and ten years and $300 million or more of outstanding face value, excluding amounts held by the Federal Reserve.¹

The index leaves out inflation-linked securities, Treasury bills, cash management bills, government agency debt and zero-coupon issues. Securities issued or marketed mainly to retail investors do not qualify either.¹

The index is market value weighted, and its securities are updated on the last calendar day of each month. It is sponsored by ICE Data Indices, LLC, which is independent of the fund and BFA and determines the index's components and their weightings.¹

Dividend Stacker's record of past payments shows IEF making 12 distributions in every completed year from 2003 through 2025. Annual totals peaked at $3.74 per share in 2007, then slid to $1.76 in 2013. After a partial recovery, the total fell 43.6% in 2020 to $1.29 and reached the record's low of $0.9587 in 2021.³

Payments then rebounded sharply. The 2022 total of $1.88 was up 96.0% from 2021, followed by $2.81 in 2023 and $3.35 in 2024. The 2025 total reached $3.62 per share, up 8.3%, making four consecutive completed years with a higher annual total.³

Rising interest rates generally cause fixed-income securities to lose value, and securities with longer maturities are generally more sensitive to rate changes and subject to greater swings in value. IEF could also lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during more prolonged market downturns.¹

Falling rates bring a different risk. The fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors, because it may be required to invest in lower-yielding bonds when a holding matures or when bonds in the index are substituted. During periods of very low or negative interest rates, IEF may be unable to maintain positive returns or pay dividends.¹

Although Treasuries are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, their market value is not guaranteed and may fluctuate. Changes in the U.S. government's financial condition or credit rating may cause their value to decline, and circumstances could arise that prevent the timely payment of interest or principal.¹

Concentration risk also applies. To the extent IEF's investments are concentrated in one or more issuers, the fund may be susceptible to an increased risk of loss, including losses due to adverse events that affect its investments more than the market as a whole.¹

Because IEF uses representative sampling, it may be subject to tracking error, the divergence of its performance from that of the index. Market trading risk may also cause IEF shares to trade at a premium or discount to the fund's net asset value per share (NAV).¹