MDEV vs XHS

MDEVDFirst Trust Indxx Medical Devices ETF

XHSAState Street SPDR S&P Health Care Services ETF

In short

MDEV Medical devices, worldwide and evenly sliced. MDEV tracks a global index of roughly 50 device and equipment makers in similar-sized weights, so a mid-cap scanner or surgical-robot maker counts about as much as the household-name giants.

XHS Most health care ETFs are pharma funds in disguise. XHS buys the delivery system instead: insurers, hospitals, distributors and clinics, roughly equal weighted so one giant insurer does not run the show.

Stated mandate

MDEV The Fund seeks to track the performance of the Indxx Medical Devices Index before fees and expenses, using an indexing approach.

XHS The fund seeks to track the total return of the S&P Health Care Services Select Industry Index before fees and expenses, providing targeted exposure to health care services companies.

Why people hold it

• MDEV Pure play by design: the index covers the medical equipment industry only, and at least 80% of net assets go into its constituents. No pharma or insurers riding along.usnews.com
• Equal weighting keeps one mega-cap from running the show. About 50 device names get similar-sized slices, pushing real weight toward the mid-sized makers.public.comrobinhood.com
• Global by mandate, not US-only: the fund holds common stocks and depositary receipts from device makers listed outside the States, using plain physical index replication.businesswire.comusnews.com

• XHS No drugmakers, no device makers. The index tracks four slices of care delivery: distributors, facilities, health care services and managed care.ssga.com
• Modified equal weighting spreads about 60 names across large, mid and small caps, so the portfolio is not a bet on two or three mega caps.ssga.com
• 0.35% a year sits below the 0.50% median for broad health care ETFs, on a fund that has been running since 2011.
• Ranks in the top quartile of the broad health care ETFs we grade.

Worth knowing

• MDEV At 0.70% a year, it costs more than the typical global thematic fund, and well above cheaper cohort names like PBPH (0.13%) or UFOX (0.30%).
• Small and thinly traded: spreads can run wide, and sub-scale funds face a higher chance of closure or merger than their bigger shelf-mates.
• One industry, about 50 stocks. Reimbursement rules, hospital budgets and regulators move the whole basket at once, and payouts come once or twice a year.

• XHS Cheap against the median, not against the giants: XLV, VHT and FHLC charge under a tenth of a percent for cap weighted whole sector exposure.
• Thinly traded next to the big sector funds, so spreads and limit orders matter more here.
• Leaving out pharma and biotech means it moves differently from a whole sector fund, and insurers and hospitals sit close to reimbursement policy.ssga.com

Full MDEV profile⁠

Full XHS profile⁠