FTXH vs XPH

FTXHBFirst Trust Nasdaq Pharmaceuticals ETF

XPHBState Street SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF

In short

FTXH Most pharma funds just size positions by market cap. FTXH screens US pharma stocks for liquidity, then ranks and weights them on value, momentum and profitability, so the biggest drugmaker isn't automatically the biggest holding.

XPH Most pharma funds are a mega-cap sandwich. XPH equal-weights instead, so a small-cap drugmaker gets roughly the same say as an industry giant, across about 60 names, for 0.35% a year.

Stated mandate

FTXH The fund seeks returns broadly matching the price and yield of the Nasdaq US Smart PharmaceuticalsTM Index before expenses. It uses an indexing approach intended to replicate that index’s holdings and weights, targeting 95% correlation, without assuring success.

XPH The fund seeks to provide exposure to the pharmaceuticals segment of the S&P TMI.

Why people hold it

• FTXH Weights follow a factor scorecard (value, momentum, profitability) rather than company size, a different recipe from the plain cap-weighted pharma funds it sits beside.ftportfolios.com
• Stays in its lane: US pharmaceutical companies, not a broad health care blend of biotech, device makers and insurers.ftportfolios.com
• Live since 2016 with a few hundred million in assets, it changes hands actively and pays distributions quarterly.
• Index replication is the whole job here, and the fund has kept close to the Nasdaq US Smart Pharmaceuticals Index it advertises.ftportfolios.com

• XPH Modified equal weighting with quarterly rebalances: the index trims what has run and keeps real room for small and mid-cap drugmakers, not just the household names.ssga.com
• At 0.35%, the cheapest sticker in its pharma peer group and well under the group median of 0.57% (PPH 0.36%, IHE 0.37%, PJP 0.57%, FTXH 0.60%).
• Pure pharma, not a health care grab bag: it draws only from the pharmaceuticals segment of the S&P Total Market Index. No insurers, hospitals or device makers.ssga.com
• Running since 2006 under a single index rulebook, with assets in the mid-size range and about 60 holdings behind it.

Worth knowing

• FTXH The screen costs money: 0.60% a year, above the pharma-ETF median and well above cap-weighted rivals PPH (0.36%) and XPH (0.35%).
• About 50 names in a single sector. Patent rulings, trial results and drug-pricing headlines land with full force.
• Factor weighting cuts both ways: the lineup can look quite different from a standard cap-weighted pharma benchmark, and behave differently too.

• XPH Equal weighting pulls the portfolio down the cap ladder, where trial results and FDA decisions can swing a single stock hard. Expect a bumpier ride than mega-cap pharma.ssga.com
• One industry, one country. Drug pricing rules and patent cliffs hit the whole basket at once.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so spreads can widen. Limit orders are the usual answer.

Full FTXH profile⁠

Full XPH profile⁠