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Should You Invest in the Fidelity MSCI Health Care Index ETF (FHLC)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Healthcare - Broad segment of the equity market, the Fidelity MSCI Health Care Index ETF (FHLC - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 10/21/2013.

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 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 9, placing it in bottom 44%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Fidelity. It has amassed assets over $3.07 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Healthcare - Broad segment of the equity market. FHLC seeks to match the performance of the MSCI USA IMI Health Care Index before fees and expenses.

The MSCI USA IMI Health Care Index represents the performance of the health care sector in the U.S. equity market.

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 0.08%, making it the least expensive product in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.38%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, 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 Inc Common Stock Usd.01 (UNH - Free Report) accounts for about 8.04% of total assets, followed by Johnson + Johnson Common Stock Usd1.0 (JNJ - Free Report) and Eli Lilly + Co Common Stock (LLY - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 41.30% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added roughly 0.30% and it's up approximately 2.60% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 08/10/2023), respectively. FHLC has traded between $57.55 and $66.02 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.72 and standard deviation of 15.85% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 416 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Fidelity MSCI Health Care Index 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, FHLC is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT - Free Report) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV - Free Report) tracks Health Care Select Sector Index. Vanguard Health Care ETF has $17.22 billion in assets, Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF has $40.82 billion. VHT has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLV charges 0.10%.

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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