ETF Evaluator: State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF (VLU) Follow This ETF

State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF Overview

State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF (VLU) is a passively managed U.S. Equity Large Value exchange-traded fund (ETF). State Street Investment Management launched the ETF in 2012.

The investment seeks investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P 1500 Low Valuation Tilt Index. Under normal market conditions, the fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the index. The index applies an alternative weighting methodology to the S&P Composite 1500 Index so that stocks with relatively low valuations (i.e., relatively "cheap") are overweight relative to the S&P Composite 1500 Index and stocks with relatively high valuations are underweight.

About State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF (VLU)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 6.67 years: Emiliano Rabinovich (2025), John Law (2018) 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 1500 Low Valuation Tilt TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF has 1479 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 17.6% 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® 1500 ValTiltETF is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity ETF group. State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF has 0.9% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 99.0% There is 0.9% 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® 1500 ValTiltETF has 0.1% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $725 million in total assets, which is below the $5 billion average for the Large Value 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.

VLU 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® 1500 ValTiltETF expense ratio is low compared to funds in the Large Value category. State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF has an expense ratio of 0.12%, which is 67% 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® 1500 ValTiltETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 17%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 41% for the Large Value category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, State Street® SPDR® S&P® 1500 ValTiltETF returned 0.5%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Large Value category had an average return of 1.1%. 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® 1500 ValTiltETF has a trailing yield of 1.63%, which is below the 1.74% 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® 1500 ValTiltETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 14.1%, 2.3 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of B. The fund has returned 26.1% over the past year (grade of B), 19.4% over the past three years (grade of B) and 12.5% per year over the past five years (grade of B) and 14.1% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

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