SPDR® MSCI USA Gender Diversity ETF earns a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral with strength in areas such as People offset by weaker spots such as Process. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight in liquidity exposure and an underweight in quality exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And a low quality exposure is rooted in stocks with higher financial leverage and lower profitability. The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Above Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

Analyst Rating

NVIDIA

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Microsoft

Apple

Accenture Plc

Alphabet

Eli Lilly

Cisco Systems

JPMorgan Chase & Co

Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category index on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. SPDR® MSCI USA Gender Diversity ETF earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. The process benefits from its parent firm's impressive long-term risk-adjusted performance, as shown by the firm's average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.3 stars. However, the rating is limited by the fund's unimpressive long-term risk-adjusted performance. This can be seen in its five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process has struggled over that period. The parent firm's five-year retention rate of 74% also limits the process.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is:  The investment seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the MSCI USA Gender Diversity Select Index that tracks U.S. large- and mid-cap companies exhibiting certain gender diversity and diversity management characteristics.  Under normal market conditions, the fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the index. In addition, it may invest in equity securities that are not included in the index, and cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments. The fund is non-diversified. 

 The portfolio is overweight in technology by 2.7 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its communication services allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are industrials and financial services; however, the allocations are similar to the category. The portfolio is composed of 225 holdings and is less top-heavy than peers. Specifically, 34.9% of the strategy's assets are concentrated within the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the typical peer's 48.8%. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 135% of the fund's holdings have changed, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Below Average

Process

State Street’s team is strong compared with others in the industry, resulting in an Above Average People Pillar rating. There are three managers listed on the fund: Amy Scofield, Kathleen Morgan, Amy Cheng. Though they do not manage other products together, managers may manage them individually.  

 Note: This People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. Morningstar analysts evaluate the People Pillar for passive products at the brand level and may also differentiate by asset class. There is at least one other passive strategy at the firm that is covered by a Morningstar analyst, so the People Pillar rating of the fund is inherited from the rating that the Morningstar analyst assigned to investment vehicles under the same brand name.

Above Average

People

State Street Global Advisors is under new leadership but continues to move along the positive trajectory established by former leaders. SSGA maintains its Above Average Parent Pillar rating.
Cyrus Taraporevala, who oversaw much of SSGA’s recent transformation, retired from the CEO position in December 2022 and passed the baton to his successor, Yie-Hsin Hung. She inherited a business that’s become more disciplined with its fund lineup. Fees have come down, while product development remains focused on fixed-income and sustainability funds, and many of SSGA’s launches have echoed that intention.
The seeds that SSGA planted over the past several years have been bearing fruit. It built out a low-cost series of portfolio building-block ETFs in the U.S. bearing the “SPDR Portfolio” branding. SSGA launched these later than its industry rivals, so they aren’t as large. But they’re competitive, with solid management and low fees, which helped them consistently take in new money over the past several years.
SSGA continued to overhaul its ETF business in Europe with most of its recent fixed-income and sustainability fund launches. Many of these funds track indexes and charge relatively low fees. With operations in the U.S. and Europe standing on a firm foundation, SSGA will put more focus on its Asia-Pacific business—the smallest regional segment of its business.

Parent

SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF

SHE tracks a market cap-weighted index of US large- and mid-sized companies promoting gender diversity whilst exhibiting a relatively high proportion of women throughout all levels of their organizations.

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Both the Impact Shares YWCA Women's Empowerment ETF (WOMN) and the SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF (SHE) hit record highs Wednesday, the day before Women's Equality Day on Thursday. WOMN was up almost 19% year-to-date while SHE was up 17%, reported CNBC.

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The number of female executives in charge of top global performing companies rose this year, reflecting the growing importance of governance to investors and the general public. Fortune compiles a yearly list of the 500 largest companies in the world, whose combined sales equated to $31.7 trillion, roughly one-third of the global GDP.

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