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Should You Invest in the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP - 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 are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Energy - Exploration is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 4, placing it in top 25%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $5.06 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market. XOP seeks to match the performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index represents the oil and gas exploration and production sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Markets Index. The S&P TMI tracks all the US common stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ National Market and NASDAQ Small Cap exchanges. The Oil & Gas Exploration 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 1.87%.

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 Energy sector--about 99.50% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY - Free Report) accounts for about 2.58% of total assets, followed by Tellurian Inc. (TELL - Free Report) and Denbury Inc. .

The top 10 holdings account for about 20.67% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF has gained about 56.39% so far, and is up about 50.94% over the last 12 months (as of 11/24/2022). XOP has traded between $90.95 and $169.15 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.93 and standard deviation of 56.98% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 64 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, XOP is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Energy ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF (PXE - Free Report) tracks Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Intellidex Index and the iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO - Free Report) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index. Invesco Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production ETF has $349.67 million in assets, iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF has $1.25 billion. PXE has an expense ratio of 0.63% and IEO charges 0.39%.

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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