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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) was launched on 06/19/2006, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Energy ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta.

By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $537.11 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Energy ETFs. This particular fund 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.

Cost & Other Expenses

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

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 0.33%.

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.

When you look at individual holdings, Weatherford International Plc (WFRD - Free Report) accounts for about 4.60% of the fund's total assets, followed by Oceaneering International Inc. (OII - Free Report) and Technipfmc Plc (FTI - Free Report) .

XES's top 10 holdings account for about 42.67% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, XES has added about 7.59%, and is up about 38.31% in the last one year (as of 02/28/2023). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $51.42 and $89.58.

The fund has a beta of 2.04 and standard deviation of 61.72% for the trailing three-year period, which makes XES a high risk choice in this particular space. With about 34 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Energy ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could 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 $422.59 million in assets, VanEck Oil Services ETF has $2.47 billion. IEZ has an expense ratio of 0.39% 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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