Should You Invest in the Strive U.S. Energy ETF (DRLL)?

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Energy - Broad segment of the equity market, the Strive U.S. Energy ETF (DRLL) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 08/09/2022.

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. Energy - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 15, placing it in bottom 6%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Strive Etfs. It has amassed assets over $265.12 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Energy - Broad segment of the equity market. DRLL seeks to match the performance of the BLOOMBERG US ENERGY SELECT INDEX before fees and expenses.

The Bloomberg US Energy Select Index measures the performance of US oil and gas producers.

Costs

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.41%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 3.05%.

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 Energy sector--about 99.10% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM) accounts for about 23.49% of total assets, followed by Chevron Corp (CVX) and Conocophillips (COP).

The top 10 holdings account for about 77.07% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the Strive U.S. Energy ETF has lost about -2.68% so far, and is down about -13.28% over the last 12 months (as of 05/12/2025). DRLL has traded between $24.09 and $31.37 in this past 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.77 and standard deviation of 24.02% for the trailing three-year period. With about 40 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Strive U.S. Energy 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, DRLL is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Energy ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Energy 25/50 Index and the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) tracks Energy Select Sector Index. Vanguard Energy ETF has $6.79 billion in assets, Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF has $26.80 billion. VDE has an expense ratio of 0.09% and XLE charges 0.08%.

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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