Designed to provide broad exposure to the Technology - Broad segment of the equity market, the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 12/16/1998.
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. Technology - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 6, placing it in top 38%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $53.56 billion, making it the largest ETF attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Broad segment of the equity market. XLK seeks to match the performance of the Technology Select Sector Index before fees and expenses.
The Technology Select Sector Index includes companies from the following industries: computers & peripherals; software; diversified telecommunication services; communications equipment; semiconductor & semiconductor equipment; internet software & services; IT services; wireless telecommunication services; electronic equipment & instruments; and office electronics.
Costs
Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.
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 0.77%.
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, Apple Inc (AAPL) accounts for about 23.60% of total assets, followed by Microsoft Corp (MSFT) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA).
The top 10 holdings account for about 70.32% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, XLK return is roughly 47.12%, and was up about 38.97% in the last one year (as of 11/15/2023). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $121.18 and $182.04.