Should You Invest in the State Street SPDR S&P Software & Services ETF (XSW)?

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Technology - Software segment of the equity market, the State Street SPDR S&P Software & Services ETF (XSW) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on September 28, 2011.

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Technology - Software is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 5, placing it in top 31%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $277.29 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Software segment of the equity market. XSW seeks to match the performance of the S&P Software & Services Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Software & Services Select Industry Index represents the software 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 Software Index is a modified equal weight index.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

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 0.08%.

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 97.1% of the portfolio.

The top 10 holdings account for about 8.83% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the State Street SPDR S&P Software & Services ETF has lost about 18.31% so far, and is down about 21.33% over the last 12 months (as of 02/12/2026). XSW has traded between $141.65 and $205.24 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.14 and standard deviation of 25.01% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 143 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

State Street SPDR S&P Software & Services 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, XSW 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.

Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF (IGPT) tracks STOXX WORLD AC NEXGEN SOFTWARE DEV ID and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) tracks S&P North American Technology-Software Index. Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF has $704.53 million in assets, iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF has $7.19 billion. IGPT has an expense ratio of 0.56%, and IGV charges 0.39%.

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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