10 important things you should know about State Street Global Advisors SPY ETF
Updated: November 29, 2021
Bull case
High net assets
3-year return above the benchmark
5-year return above the benchmark
10-year return above the benchmark
15-year return above the benchmark
Low expense ratio
Bear case

No bear case arguments.

Before we start: if you’re looking for SPY “stock” price, you can quickly find it out by visiting Finny and typing "SPY quote". If you’re looking for a quick scoop on SPY "stock" (price chart, key stats, buy or sell analysis and holdings), go to Finny and look for "SPY". You’ll get all this info in one place.

Are you looking to buy or sell SPY? Or perhaps you’re looking for SPY fact sheet, and learn about its alternatives? If so, you came to the right place.

In this SPY ETF review, we’ll address key questions our readers have been asking us about this fund, above and beyond what you can find in its prospectus, and on Morningstar or Yahoo Finance.

Here is what you’ll be able to find in this review:

  • Fact Sheet: SPY performance, returns, expense ratio, holdings and dividend yield;
  • Analysis: SPY buy or sell; the pros and cons of investing in SPY ETF;
  • Alternatives: other ETFs and mutual funds you should consider as alternatives to SPY.

And here is the list of questions we’ll answer:

  1. Describe SPDR S&P 500 (SPY).
  2. What is SPY underlying index?
  3. What are SPY holdings?
  4. What is SPY performance? What are SPY historical returns?
  5. What is SPY dividend yield?
  6. What is SPY Finny Score? SPY buy or sell?
  7. What are the pros of investing in SPY? What are SPY buy reasons?
  8. What are the cons of investing in SPY? What are SPY sell reasons?
  9. Compare and contrast: SPY vs SDY.
  10. Compare and contrast: SPY vs SH.

So let’s start. Scroll down to the question that interests you the most.

Fact Sheet

1. Describe SPDR S&P 500 (SPY).

The Trust seeks investment results that, before expenses, generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the component common stocks of the S&P 500 Index.

2. What is SPY underlying index?

S&P 500.

3. What are SPY top holdings?

SPY has 507 stock holdings and 0 bond holdings.

The top 10 holdings represent 27.96% of total assets. Here are the top holdings:

Name Symbol % Assets
Apple Inc AAPL 6.45%
Microsoft Corp MSFT 5.65%
Amazon.com Inc AMZN 4.77%
Facebook Inc A FB 2.33%
Alphabet Inc A GOOGL 1.79%
Alphabet Inc Class C GOOG 1.76%
Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B BRK.B 1.48%
Johnson & Johnson JNJ 1.33%
Procter & Gamble Co PG 1.26%
NVIDIA Corp NVDA 1.14%

4. What is SPY performance? What are SPY historical returns?

SPY has generated the following returns:

  • 1-month return is 0.66%;
  • 3-month return is 3.18%;
  • 1-year return is 28.35%;
  • 3-year return is 21.81%;
  • 5-year return is 17.79%;
  • 10-year return is 16.96%;
  • 15-year return is 10.39%.

5. What is SPY dividend yield?

SPY yield is 1.3%.

Analysis

6. What is Finny Score? buy or sell?

Finny Score is 100. Our quantitative analysis shows 6 reasons to buy and 0 reasons to sell it, resulting in the Finny Score of 100.

7. What are the pros of investing in SPY? What are SPY buy reasons?

The following are SPY strengths from our perspective:

  • SPY net assets are $417.28 billion. This fund is a popular choice with retail and institutional investors.
  • SPY 3-year return is 21.81%, which is in line with the 3-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 23.5%.
  • SPY 5-year return is 17.79%, which is in line with the 5-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 18.53%.
  • SPY 10-year return is 16.96%, which is in line with the 10-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 17.33%.
  • SPY 15-year return is 10.39%, which is in line with the 15-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 10.65%.
  • SPY expense ratio is 0.09%, which is considered low. Nice job picking a low-cost fund.

8. What are the cons of investing in SPY? What are SPY negatives?

There are no visible red flags.

Alternatives

9. Compare and contrast: SPY vs SDY.

Both SPY and SDY are ETFs.

SPY has a higher 5-year return than SDY (17.79% vs 11.29%).

SPY has a lower expense ratio than SDY (0.09% vs 0.35%).

SPY SDY
Segment Equity: U.S. - Large Cap Equity: U.S. - High Dividend Yield
Net Assets $417.28B $20.83B
Expense Ratio 0.09% 0.35%
Management Style passive (index-based) passive (index-based)
Underlying Index S&P 500 S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index
Dividend Yield 1.3% 2.65%

SDY profile: The Fund seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the total return performance of S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index. The Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities comprising the index, designed to track the performance of publicly traded issuers that have historical dividend payments.

For further information, check out SPY vs SDY comparison details.

10. Compare and contrast: SPY vs SH.

Both SPY and SH are ETFs.

SPY has a higher 5-year return than SH (17.79% vs -17.02%).

SPY has a lower expense ratio than SH (0.09% vs 0.88%).

SPY SH
Segment Equity: U.S. - Large Cap Inverse Equity: U.S. - Large Cap
Net Assets $417.28B $1.42B
Expense Ratio 0.09% 0.88%
Management Style passive (index-based) passive (index-based)
Underlying Index S&P 500 S&P 500
Dividend Yield 1.3% N/A

SH profile: The Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the S&P 500 Index.

For further information, check out SPY vs SH comparison details.

In the SPY review, we covered SPY key stats (return, performance, yield, expense ratio, and holdings), buy and sell analysis, and alternative investments. If this review was helpful to you, feel free to check out other mutual fund and ETF reviews.