14 Best Large-Cap Stock ETFs: Morningstar

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In a blog post this week, Susan Dziubinski, director of content at Morningstar.com, rang up the attractive qualities of ETFs: easy to buy and sell, generally low cost, usually tax efficient and pretty transparent. "Given these qualities," she wrote, "ETFs can make terrific portfolio building blocks because they allow you to get exposure to the parts of the market that you want — and to avoid the parts of the market you don't want." Dziubinski listed 14 U.S. large-cap stock ETFs to which Morningstar analysts have assigned the firm's top rating, Gold, because they think these funds are most likely to outperform over a full market cycle. There are strategic differences among them. Some ETFs in the group track the S&P 500, providing access to large-cap stocks that represent about 80% of the U.S. stock market. Others on the list follow broader market indexes that include more stocks, some of which are smaller-cap names. "While these funds also land in the large-blend Morningstar Category, they expose investors to a wider pool of stocks and market capitalizations," Dziubinski wrote. Still other ETFs on the list provide exposure to a subset of stocks, for example, ones that focus on dividend-paying stocks. Moreover, some names on the list focus on growth stocks, while others explore value stocks. See the gallery for the 14 best large-cap equity ETFs, according to Morningstar.