ETF Evaluator: State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF (BILS) Follow This ETF

State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF Overview

State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF (BILS) is a passively managed Taxable Bond Ultrashort Bond exchange-traded fund (ETF). State Street Investment Management launched the ETF in 2020.

The investment seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg 3-12 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index. In seeking to track the performance of the index, the fund employs a sampling strategy, which means that the fund is not required to purchase all of the securities represented in the index. The index is designed to measure the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 3 months and less than 12 months.

About State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF (BILS)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 2.26 years: Cynthia Moy (2024), Joanna Madden (2024) and James Kramer (2024). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg US Try Bill 3-12 Mth TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF has 29 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 53.8% of the ETF’s assets. The ETF meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The ETF is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond ETF group. State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF has 0.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0% There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 76.2% (76.2% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF has 23.8% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $3 billion in total assets, which is below the $5 billion average for the Ultrashort Bond category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

BILS Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF expense ratio is low compared to funds in the Ultrashort Bond category. State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF has an expense ratio of 0.14%, which is 39% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 0%, which indicates that it holds its assets around /years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 57% for the Ultrashort Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF returned 0.3%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Ultrashort Bond category had an average return of 0.3%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all ETFs in that category.

State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF has a trailing yield of 3.76%, which is below the 4.07% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

State Street® SPDR®Blmbg3-12MthT-BillETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 2.0%, 0.1 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 3.9% over the past year (grade of D), 4.6% over the past three years (grade of F) and 3.4% per year over the past five years (grade of F).

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