Designed to provide broad exposure to the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP Quick QuoteXOP - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on June 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.

Additionally, sector ETFs offer convenient 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 10, placing it in bottom 38%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $1.83 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

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts 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.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.49%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Energy sector -- about 98.4% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Hf Sinclair Corp (DINO) accounts for about 3.59% of total assets, followed by Chevron Corp (CVX) and Apa Corp (APA).

The top 10 holdings account for about 31.82% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, XOP has lost about 1.38%, and it's up approximately 3.06% in the last one year (as of 09/10/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $101.91 and $148.67.

The ETF has a beta of 1.02 and standard deviation of 30.05% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 53 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, XOP is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Energy ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

Invesco Energy Exploration & Production ETF (PXE) tracks Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Intellidex Index and the iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index. Invesco Energy Exploration & Production ETF has $71.03 million in assets, iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF has $468.34 million. PXE has an expense ratio of 0.63%, and IEO charges 0.38%.

Bottom Line

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