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Should You Invest in the SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE)?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Financials - Insurance segment of the equity market? You should consider the SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 11/08/2005.

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they 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. Financials - Insurance is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 1, placing it in top 6%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $528.52 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Insurance segment of the equity market. KIE seeks to match the performance of the S&P Insurance Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Insurance Select Industry Index represents the insurance segment of the S&P Total Market Index.

Costs

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.35%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.73%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector--about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Trupanion Inc. (TRUP - Free Report) accounts for about 2.54% of total assets, followed by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG - Free Report) and Kinsale Capital Group Inc. (KNSL - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 23.01% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, KIE return is roughly 4.87%, and it's up approximately 5.04% in the last one year (as of 11/23/2022). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $35.58 and $42.60.

The ETF has a beta of 0.87 and standard deviation of 30.48% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 54 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Insurance ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, KIE is an outstanding option for investors seeking exposure to the Financials ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Invesco KBW Property & Casualty Insurance ETF (KBWP - Free Report) tracks KBW Nasdaq Property & Casualty Index and the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF (IAK - Free Report) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Insurance Index. Invesco KBW Property & Casualty Insurance ETF has $330.07 million in assets, iShares U.S. Insurance ETF has $515.04 million. KBWP has an expense ratio of 0.35% and IAK charges 0.39%.

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.

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