Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market, the Select STOXX Europe Aerospace & Defense ETF (EUAD Quick QuoteEUAD - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on October 22, 2024.

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

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. Industrials - Aerospace & Defense is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 5, placing it in top 31%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Select Funds. It has amassed assets over $1.36 billion, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market. EUAD seeks to match the performance of the STOXX EUROPE TM AEROSPACE & DEFENSE INDX before fees and expenses.

The STOXX Europe Total Market Aerospace & Defense Index tracks the performance of a portfolio of the common stock of companies based in Europe whose primary business is the manufacture, service, supply and distribution of civil and military aerospace equipment, systems and technology, and civil and military defense and protective services equipment, technology, systems and services.

Costs

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.5%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

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.Looking at individual holdings, Rolls-royce Holdings-sp Adr (RYCEY) accounts for about 18.9% of total assets, followed by Safran Sa-unspon Adr (SAFRY) and Airbus Group Se (EADSY).

The top 10 holdings account for about 94.99% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added about 5.46% and is up roughly 29.57% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 04/16/2026), respectively. EUAD has traded between $33.48 and $48.28 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.71 and standard deviation of 28.38% for the trailing three-year period. With about 14 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Select STOXX Europe Aerospace & Defense ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. EUAD, then, is not the best option for investors seeking exposure to the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.

Global X Defense Tech ETF (SHLD) tracks GLOBAL X DEFENSE TECH INDEX and the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index. Global X Defense Tech ETF has $8.75 billion in assets, iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF has $14.27 billion. SHLD has an expense ratio of 0.5%, and ITA charges 0.38%.

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.