ETF Evaluator: iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF (GBF) Follow This ETF

iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF Overview

iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF (GBF) is a passively managed Taxable Bond Intermediate Core Bond exchange-traded fund (ETF). iShares launched the ETF in 2007.

The investment seeks to track the investment results of the Bloomberg Intermediate U.S. Aggregate Index (the "underlying index"). The underlying index includes U.S. Treasury bonds, government-related bonds (i.e., U.S. and non‑U.S. agencies, sovereign, quasi-sovereign, supranational and local authority debt), U.S. and non‑U.S. corporate bonds, mortgage-backed pass-through securities (“MBS”), commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) (agency and non‑agency), and asset-backed securities (“ABS”). U.S. Treasuries, government-related bonds and corporate bonds must have at least $300 million par amount outstanding.

About iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF (GBF)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 5.61 years: James Mauro (2011), Jonathan Graves (2025) and Marcus Tom (2025). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Universal TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg US Agg Interm TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF has 3274 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 6.6% of the ETF’s assets. The ETF meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The ETF is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond ETF group. iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF has 9.9% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0% There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 99.3% (89.4% domestic bond, 9.9% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF has 0.7% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $124 million in total assets, which is below the $6 billion average for the Intermediate Core Bond category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

GBF Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Intermediate Core Bond category. iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF has an expense ratio of 0.20%, which is 38% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 20%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 100% for the Intermediate Core Bond category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF returned 0.3%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Intermediate Core Bond category had an average return of 0.2%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all ETFs in that category.

iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF has a trailing yield of 3.77%, which is below the 4.35% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 0.5%, 0.3 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 3.2% over the past year (grade of F), 3.8% over the past three years (grade of F) and -0.3% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 1.4% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

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