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Is State Street SPDR Russell 1000 Yield Focus ETF (ONEY) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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A smart beta exchange traded fund, the State Street SPDR Russell 1000 Yield Focus ETF (ONEY - Free Report) debuted on 12/02/2015, and offers broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Value 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.

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

There are some investors, though, who think it's possible to beat the market with great stock selection; this group likely invests in another class of funds known as smart beta, which track non-cap weighted strategies.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

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

The fund is managed by State Street Investment Management, and has been able to amass over $844.4 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Value. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Russell 1000 Yield Focused Factor Index before fees and expenses.

The Russell 1000 Yield Focused Factor Index reflects the performance of a segment of large-capitalization U.S. equity securities demonstrating a combination of core factors high value, high quality, and low size characteristics, with a focus factor comprising high yield characteristics.

Cost & Other Expenses

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins if all other fundamentals are the same.

With one of the cheaper products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.20%.

It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 3.00%.

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 Industrials sector - about 13.4% of the portfolio. Consumer Staples and Energy round out the top three.

When you look at individual holdings, United Parcel Service Cl B (UPS) accounts for about 2.22% of the fund's total assets, followed by Target Corp (TGT) and Eog Resources Inc (EOG).

ONEY's top 10 holdings account for about 14.75% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, ONEY has added about 5.07%, and it's up approximately 12.57% in the last one year (as of 03/19/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $95.52 and $126.60.

ONEY has a beta of 0.87 and standard deviation of 14.63% for the trailing three-year period. With about 303 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

State Street SPDR Russell 1000 Yield Focus ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Value segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index and the Vanguard Value Index Fund ETF Shares (VTV) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Value Index. Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF has $83.29 billion in assets, Vanguard Value Index Fund ETF Shares has $164.93 billion. SCHD has an expense ratio of 0.06% and VTV changes 0.03%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Value

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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