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Should You Invest in the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT)?

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If you're interested in broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market, look no further than the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/19/2006.

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

Sector ETFs also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Consumer Discretionary - Retail is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 8, placing it in top 50%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $810.51 million, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market. XRT seeks to match the performance of the S&P Retail Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Retail Select Industry Index represents the retail sub-industry portion of the S&P TMI. The S&P TMI tracks all the U.S. common stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ National Market and NASDAQ Small Cap exchanges. The Retail Index is a modified equal weight index.

Costs

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.35%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.77%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector--about 87.80% of the portfolio, followed by Consumer Staples.

Looking at individual holdings, Macy's Inc (M - Free Report) accounts for about 1.34% of total assets, followed by Overstock.com Inc. and Boot Barn Holdings Inc. (BOOT - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 12.21% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 46.52% and it's up approximately 50.05% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 12/07/2021), respectively. XRT has traded between $60.62 and $104.16 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.35 and standard deviation of 32.59% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 109 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Retail ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, XRT is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN - Free Report) tracks PROSHARES ONLINE RETAIL INDEX and the Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY - Free Report) tracks EQM Online Retail Index. ProShares Online Retail ETF has $688.28 million in assets, Amplify Online Retail ETF has $716.64 million. ONLN has an expense ratio of 0.58% and IBUY charges 0.65%.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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