The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) was launched on 12/16/1998, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Healthcare - Broad segment of the equity market.
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 also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Healthcare - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 11, placing it in bottom 31%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $36.84 billion, making it the largest ETF attempting to match the performance of the Healthcare - Broad segment of the equity market. XLV seeks to match the performance of the Health Care Select Sector Index before fees and expenses.
The Health Care Select Sector Index includes companies from the following industries: pharmaceuticals; health care providers & services; health care equipment & supplies; biotechnology; life sciences tools & services; and health care technology.
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 0.10%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.46%.
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 Healthcare sector--about 100% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Unitedhealth Group Incorporated (UNH) accounts for about 9.12% of total assets, followed by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Pfizer Inc. (PFE).
The top 10 holdings account for about 51.68% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, XLV has lost about -6.26%, and is up roughly 8.63% in the last one year (as of 05/02/2022). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $121.33 and $142.83.
The ETF has a beta of 0.79 and standard deviation of 20.63% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 68 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.