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Should State Street SPDR S&P MIDCAP 400 ETF Trust (MDY) Be on Your Investing Radar?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Mid Cap Blend segment of the US equity market? You should consider the State Street SPDR S&P MIDCAP 400 ETF Trust (MDY - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on May 4, 1995.

The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $26.21 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.

Why Mid Cap Blend

Compared to large and small cap companies, mid cap businesses tend to have higher growth prospects and are less volatile, respectively, with market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion. Thus they have a nice balance of growth potential and stability.

Blend ETFs usually hold a mix of growth and value stocks as well as stocks that exhibit both value and growth characteristics.

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 0.23%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.04%.

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 to the Industrials sector -- about 23.6% of the portfolio. Financials and Information Technology round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Okta Inc. Class A (OKTA) accounts for about 1.06% of total assets, followed by U.s. Dollar (CASH_USD) and Nvent Electric Plc (NVT).

The top 10 holdings account for about 7.64% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

MDY seeks to match the performance of the S&P MidCap 400 Index before fees and expenses. The S&P MidCap 400 Index is composed of 400 selected stocks listed on national stock exchanges, and spans a broad range of major industry groups.

The ETF has added about 12.89% so far this year and was up about 15.28% in the last one year (as of 11/04/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $568.63 and $716.91.

The ETF has a beta of 1.01 and standard deviation of 17.34% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 401 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

State Street SPDR S&P MIDCAP 400 ETF Trust carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, MDY is a good option for those seeking exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Blend area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

The Vanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF (VO) and the iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF (IJH) track a similar index. While Vanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF has $107.59 billion in assets, iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF has $124.76 billion. VO has an expense ratio of 0.03% and IJH charges 0.05%.

Bottom-Line

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.

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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