It was a photo finish, but Vanguard [profile] beat out BlackRock [profile], State Street and Powershares as the top stock ETF provider in S&P Capital IQ’s rankings.

Barron’s reports that Vanguard was ranked first, BlackRock second, State Street third and PowerShares fourth in these rankings.

Vanguard is given the top ranking for a few reasons, according to Barron’s. First, many of the firm’s fund asset classes screen favorably according to S&P’s fundamental analysts — a subject on which reasonable people can disagree.

Another factor is cost. The average gross expense ratio for Vanguard’s 52 equity ETFs is down to 17 basis points as of November. Expense ratios aren’t everything, notes the columnist “but combine them with tight bid-ask spreads and Vanguard comes out on top of S&P’s cost-factor analysis.”

Read the full story in Barron’s.  

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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