The State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) was launched on January 31, 2006, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Technology - Semiconductors segment of the equity market.

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds 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. Technology - Semiconductors is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 3, placing it in top 19%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $3.21 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Semiconductors segment of the equity market. XSD seeks to match the performance of the S&P Semiconductor Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Semiconductor Select Industry Index represents the Semiconductor sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Markets Index. The S&P TMI tracks all the U.S. common stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ National Market and NASDAQ Small Cap exchanges. The Semiconductor Index is a modified equal weight index.

Costs

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain 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 0.18%.

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 Information Technology sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Impinj Inc (PI) accounts for about 3.83% of total assets, followed by Nvidia Corp (NVDA) and Micron Technology Inc (MU).

The top 10 holdings account for about 29.47% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF has added about 63.3% so far, and was up about 64.89% over the last 12 months (as of 09/22/2026). XSD has traded between $287.85 and $649.73 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 2.01 and standard deviation of 40.99% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 48 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor 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, XSD is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Technology ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) tracks PHLX SOX Semiconductor Sector Index and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) tracks MVIS US Listed Semiconductor 25 Index. iShares Semiconductor ETF has $48.18 billion in assets, VanEck Semiconductor ETF has $77.21 billion. SOXX has an expense ratio of 0.33%, and SMH charges 0.35%.

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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State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD): ETF Research Reports

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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