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Should You Invest in the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Energy - Equipment and services segment of the equity market, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/19/2006.

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Sector ETFs also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Energy - Equipment and services is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 3, placing it in top 19%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $210.49 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Energy - Equipment and services segment of the equity market. XES seeks to match the performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services Select Industry Index represents the oil and gas equipment and services sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Markets Index. 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 Oil & Gas Equipment Index is a modified equal weight index.

Costs

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain 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 1.41%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Energy sector--about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. Class A (LBRT - Free Report) accounts for about 5.12% of total assets, followed by Halliburton Company (HAL - Free Report) and Cactus Inc. Class A (WHD - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 46.97% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF return is roughly 19.65% so far, and it's up approximately 16.35% over the last 12 months (as of 02/17/2022). XES has traded between $45.70 and $67.93 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 2.29 and standard deviation of 59.79% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 29 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. XES, then, is not the best option for investors seeking exposure to the Energy ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.

IShares U.S. Oil Equipment & Services ETF (IEZ - Free Report) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Equipment & Services Index and the VanEck Oil Services ETF (OIH - Free Report) tracks MVIS U.S. Listed Oil Services 25 Index. IShares U.S. Oil Equipment & Services ETF has $146.94 million in assets, VanEck Oil Services ETF has $2.86 billion. IEZ has an expense ratio of 0.41% and OIH charges 0.35%.

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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