Designed to provide broad exposure to the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market, the State Street SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on June 19, 2006.
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.
Additionally, sector ETFs offer convenient ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Energy - Exploration 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 $3.45 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Energy - Exploration segment of the equity market. XOP seeks to match the performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.
The S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index represents the oil and gas exploration and production sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Markets Index. 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 Oil & Gas Exploration Index is a modified equal weight index.
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 0.35%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.87%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Energy sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Apa Corp (APA) accounts for about 2.91% of total assets, followed by Venture Global Inc Cl A (VG) and Murphy Oil Corp (MUR).The top 10 holdings account for about 27.32% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, XOP has added about 38.48%, and is up roughly 41.26% in the last one year (as of 05/18/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $119.55 and $188.18.
The ETF has a beta of 0.56 and standard deviation of 27.41% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 53 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
State Street SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production 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, XOP is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Energy ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.
Portfolio Building Block Integrated Oil & Gas and Exp and Prod Index ETF (PBOG) tracks BITA GLOBAL OIL & GAS SELECT INDEX and the iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Oil Exploration & Production Index. Portfolio Building Block Integrated Oil & Gas and Exp and Prod Index ETF has $541.14 million in assets, iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF has $565.49 million. PBOG has an expense ratio of 0.13%, and IEO 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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State Street SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).