Launched on June 19, 2006, the State Street SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market.
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.
Sector ETFs also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Consumer Discretionary - Retail is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 7, placing it in top 44%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $633.42 million, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market. XRT seeks to match the performance of the S&P Retail Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.
The S&P Retail Select Industry Index represents the retail sub-industry portion of the S&P TMI. 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 Retail 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 cheaper products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.8%.
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 Consumer Discretionary sector -- about 76.6% of the portfolio, followed by Consumer Staples.
Looking at individual holdings, Camping World Holdings Inc A (CWH) accounts for about 1.79% of total assets, followed by Pricesmart Inc (PSMT) and Casey S General Stores Inc (CASY).
The top 10 holdings account for about 16.85% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the State Street SPDR S&P Retail ETF has lost about 2.85% so far, and is up about 16.42% over the last 12 months (as of 03/10/2026). XRT has traded between $62.11 and $90.88 in this past 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 1.26 and standard deviation of 22.41% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 75 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
State Street SPDR S&P Retail 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, XRT is a good option for those seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.
Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY) tracks EQM Online Retail Index and the VanEck Retail ETF (RTH) tracks MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index. Amplify Online Retail ETF has $127.84 million in assets, VanEck Retail ETF has $263.18 million. IBUY has an expense ratio of 0.65%, and RTH 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 Retail ETF (XRT): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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