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Should You Invest in the SPDR S&P Health Care Equipment ETF (XHE)?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Healthcare - Medical Devices segment of the equity market? You should consider the SPDR S&P Health Care Equipment ETF (XHE - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 01/26/2011.

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.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Healthcare - Medical Devices is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 2, placing it in top 13%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Global Advisors. It has amassed assets over $212.42 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Healthcare - Medical Devices segment of the equity market. XHE seeks to match the performance of the S&P Health Care Equipment Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Health Care Equipment Select Industry Index represents the health care equipment 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 least expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.04%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. 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, Alphatec Holdings Inc (ATEC - Free Report) accounts for about 2.77% of total assets, followed by Novocure Ltd (NVCR - Free Report) and Masimo Corp (MASI - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 23.38% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 0% so far this year and was up about 5.08% in the last one year (as of 01/02/2025). In that past 52-week period, it has traded between $80.60 and $94.34.

The ETF has a beta of 0.98 and standard deviation of 25.63% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 65 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Health Care Equipment ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, XHE is a sufficient option for those seeking exposure to the Health Care ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

First Trust Indxx Medical Devices ETF (MDEV - Free Report) tracks INDXX MEDICAL DEVICES INDEX and the iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF (IHI - Free Report) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Medical Equipment Index. First Trust Indxx Medical Devices ETF has $3.10 million in assets, iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF has $4.40 billion. MDEV has an expense ratio of 0.70% and IHI charges 0.40%.

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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