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Is SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES - Free Report) made its debut on 06/19/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Energy ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

Products that are based on market cap weighted indexes, which are strategies designed to reflect a specific market segment or the market as a whole, have traditionally dominated the ETF industry.

Market cap weighted indexes work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide a low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns.

If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.

This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

Managed by State Street Global Advisors, XES has amassed assets over $318.19 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Energy ETFs. Before fees and expenses, XES seeks to match the performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services Select Industry Index.

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.

Cost & Other Expenses

For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.

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

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.68%.

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.

XES's heaviest allocation is in the Energy sector, which is about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Liberty Energy Inc (LBRT - Free Report) accounts for about 5.05% of total assets, followed by Nov Inc (NOV - Free Report) and Weatherford International Pl (WFRD - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 44.93% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF has lost about -3.95% so far, and is up about 3.23% over the last 12 months (as of 01/09/2024). XES has traded between $67.10 and $99.83 in this past 52-week period.

XES has a beta of 1.87 and standard deviation of 43.92% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a high risk choice in the space. With about 33 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Energy ETFs segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

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 $293.93 million in assets, VanEck Oil Services ETF has $2.09 billion. IEZ has an expense ratio of 0.40% and OIH charges 0.35%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Energy ETFs.

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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