If you're interested in broad exposure to the Technology - Semiconductors segment of the equity market, look no further than the SPDR SP Semiconductor ETF (XSD), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 01/31/2006.
Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.
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. Technology - Semiconductors is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 9, placing it in bottom 44%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $639.47 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Semiconductors segment of the equity market. XSD seeks to match the performance of the S&P Semiconductor Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.
The S&P Semiconductor Select Industry Index represents the Semiconductor sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Markets Index. The S&P TMI tracks all the U.S. common stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ National Market and NASDAQ Small Cap exchanges. The Semiconductor Index is a modified equal weight index.
Costs
Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.
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 0.33%.
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 Information Technology sector--about 100% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Sunpower Corporation (SPWR) accounts for about 3.65% of total assets, followed by Cirrus Logic Inc. (CRUS) and Monolithic Power Systems Inc. (MPWR).
The top 10 holdings account for about 31.68% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added roughly 40.11% and was up about 52.22% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 11/08/2020), respectively. XSD has traded between $71.11 and $148.03 during this last 52-week period.