JXI vs VPU

JXIBiShares Global Utilities ETF

VPUBVanguard Utilities ETF

In short

JXI Almost every utilities ETF stops at the US border. JXI doesn't: it holds the utilities slice of the S&P Global 1200, so overseas power, gas and water operators sit alongside the American names. Running since 2006.

VPU Utilities, the whole sector, not just the S&P 500 slice. VPU tracks an index that reaches past the megacap names into mid and small utilities, about 70 in all, for 0.09% a year. Vanguard has run it since 2004.

Stated mandate

JXI The Fund seeks to track an index representing global equities in the utilities sector.

VPU The fund seeks to track the MSCI US Investable Market Utilities 25/50 Index through a primarily full-replication, passively managed strategy.

Why people hold it

• JXI The passport is the point: its index is the utilities cut of the S&P Global 1200, large-cap power, gas and water worldwide. Cohort rivals XLU, VPU and FUTY stay inside the US.sec.gov
• Capped by design. Issuers above 5% of the index are held to 25% in aggregate, so two or three giants can't swallow a roughly 60-stock portfolio.sec.gov
• No mystery in the mandate: a plain global utilities benchmark since 2006, with the index and its capping rules spelled out in iShares' filings.sec.gov

• VPU At 0.09% a year, it costs roughly a quarter of the median utilities fund fee. In a sector where the holdings barely differ between funds, the fee is most of the fight.
• Its MSCI Investable Market benchmark spans large, mid and small US utilities. XLU, by contrast, drafts only from the S&P 500 universe, so the smaller names never appear.vanguard.comssga.com
• The index's 25/50 caps exist to keep any single issuer under 25% and the pile of 5%-plus names under half the fund, a guardrail in a sector with a few giants.msci.com
• Plain full replication since 2004: buy the index, hold the index. Tracking here has been among the tightest in the US utilities group.

Worth knowing

• JXI You pay for the border crossing. The 0.37% fee sits at the category median, but US-only peers XLU and FUTY charge 0.08% and VPU 0.09%.
• Thinly traded next to the big US utility funds, so the bid-ask spread and your order type do more of the work.
• Cash comes in lumps: distributions are paid on an annual or semiannual schedule rather than quarterly.

• VPU One sector, about 70 stocks. It swings on rate expectations and regulator decisions, with nothing outside utilities to cushion it.
• XLU and FUTY shave the fee to 0.08%, and XLU is the more heavily traded ticker if order size matters to you.
• Income arrives quarterly, not monthly, so the cash lands in four lumps a year.

Full JXI profile⁠

Full VPU profile⁠