ETF Evaluator: State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF (XBI) Follow This ETF

State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF Overview

State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF (XBI) is a passively managed Sector Equity Health exchange-traded fund (ETF). State Street Investment Management launched the ETF in 2006.

The investment seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index derived from the biotechnology segment of a U.S. total market composite index. In seeking to track the performance of the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index (the "index"), the fund employs a sampling strategy. It generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the index. The index represents the biotechnology segment of the S&P Total Market Index ("S&P TMI").

About State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF (XBI)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 7.27 years: Emiliano Rabinovich (2025), Raymond Donofrio (2017) and Karl Schneider (2014). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100% and S&P Biotechnology Select Industry TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF has 159 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 13.3% 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® S&P® Biotech ETF is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Sector Equity ETF group. State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF has 3.3% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 96.6% There is 3.3% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF has 0.0% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $10 billion in total assets, which is above the $1 billion average for the Health 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.

XBI 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® S&P® Biotech ETF expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Health category. State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF has an expense ratio of 0.35%, which is 33% 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® S&P® Biotech ETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 43%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 40% for the Health category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, State Street® SPDR® S&P® Biotech ETF returned 15.8%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Health category had an average return of 8.7%. 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® S&P® Biotech ETF has a trailing yield of 0.36%, which is below the 1.12% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

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® S&P® Biotech ETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 29.8%, 19.7 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 91.7% over the past year (grade of A), 24.1% over the past three years (grade of A) and 3.3% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 11.5% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

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