XHE vs XLV

XHEBState Street SPDR S&P Health Care Equipment ETF

XLVAState Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF

In short

XHE Health care minus the pharma giants. XHE holds a focused basket of US medical device and supply makers at near-equal weight, so a small stent company gets roughly the same shelf space as an industry titan.

XLV Live since 1998, XLV is the original way to own health care: about 60 S&P 500 names, a 0.08% fee, and one of the busiest tickers in the sector. Big pharma and device makers, not small-cap biotech.

Stated mandate

XHE The fund seeks to match, before fees and expenses, the total return performance of the S&P Health Care Equipment Select Industry Index and provide exposure to the health care equipment segment of the S&P TMI.

XLV The fund seeks to track, before expenses, the price and yield performance of the Health Care Select Sector Index, which represents the health care sector of the S&P 500 Index.

Why people hold it

• XHE Modified equal weighting, reset on a quarterly schedule, keeps any one giant from dominating the basket. Small and mid-cap device names carry real weight here.ssga.comspglobal.com
• 0.35% a year, below the median for health care ETFs in its peer group. Unusual for a slice this narrow, where issuers often charge up.
• A true pure play: equipment and supplies drawn from the S&P Total Market Index. No pharma, no insurers, no hospital chains diluting the theme.ssga.com
• Launched in 2011 by State Street, so this one has traded through more than a decade of device-sector cycles rather than arriving with the latest theme.

• XLV 0.08% a year against a cohort median of 0.50%. That ties it with FHLC as the cheapest in the group and edges VHT at 0.09%.
• One of the most actively traded funds in its category, which generally keeps bid-ask spreads thin whether you trade 10 shares or 10,000.
• Launched December 1998 as one of the first US sector funds, and it has tracked its S&P 500 health care index closely ever since.
• Covers the whole sector in one line: pharma, devices, providers, biotech, life-science tools and health tech. Pays quarterly.ssga.com

Worth knowing

• XHE Broad health care ETFs like VHT, FHLC and XLV charge a fraction of this. The targeted device basket is what the extra costs buy.
• Thinly traded next to the big sector funds, so spreads can widen when markets move fast.
• One sub-industry, tilted toward smaller companies, and SSGA notes the fund can become non-diversified purely from index weight shifts.ssga.com

• XLV Cap-weighted and about 60 names deep, so the largest drug and device makers carry most of the weight.ssga.com
• S&P 500 members only. Mid- and small-cap health care names sit outside the mandate.
• One sector, one set of headlines: drug pricing rules, patent expirations and policy shifts move the whole basket together.

Full XHE profile⁠

Full XLV profile⁠