Should You Invest in the State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR)?

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market, the State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on September 28, 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. Industrials - Aerospace & Defense is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 1, placing it in top 6%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $6.03 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Aerospace & Defense segment of the equity market. XAR seeks to match the performance of the S&P Aerospace & Defense Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Aerospace & Defense Select Industry Index represents the aerospace & defense sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Stock Market Index. The S&P TMI tracks all the U.S. common stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ National Market and NASDAQ Global Select Market. The Aerospace & Defense Index is a modified equal weight index.

Costs

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

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 0.31%.

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 Industrials sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.

The top 10 holdings account for about 30.91% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF has gained about 9.86% so far, and it's up approximately 22.88% over the last 12 months (as of 08/26/2026). XAR has traded between $215.09 and $296.73 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.01 and standard deviation of 23.81% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 49 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

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

Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (PPA) tracks SPADE Defense Index and the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index. Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF has $8.13 billion in assets, iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF has $14.09 billion. PPA has an expense ratio of 0.58%, and ITA charges 0.38%.

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

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