Should You Invest in the State Street SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (XTN)?

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Transportation/Shipping segment of the equity market, the State Street SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (XTN) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on January 26, 2011.

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 are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Industrials - Transportation/Shipping is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 4, placing it in top 25%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $341.52 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Transportation/Shipping segment of the equity market. XTN seeks to match the performance of the S&P Transportation Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Transportation Select Industry Index represents the transportation segment of the S&P Total Market 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 0.72%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. 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 30.86% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, XTN has gained about 12.47%, and was up about 19.59% in the last one year (as of 09/14/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $79.2 and $117.71.

The ETF has a beta of 1.36 and standard deviation of 26.14% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 45 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

State Street SPDR S&P Transportation ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, XTN is a sufficient option for those seeking exposure to the Industrials ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

First Trust NASDAQ Transportation ETF (FTXR) tracks Nasdaq US Smart Transportation Index and the iShares U.S. Transportation ETF (IYT) tracks Dow Jones Transportation Average Index. First Trust NASDAQ Transportation ETF has $1.01 billion in assets, iShares U.S. Transportation ETF has $2.10 billion. FTXR has an expense ratio of 0.6%, and IYT 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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