A sound investment process and strong management team underpin SPDR® Portfolio Short Term Corp Bd ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the least expensive fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's effective investment philosophy supports a High Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in corporate bonds and A rated bonds compared with category peers. 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

SPDR® Portfolio Short Term Corp Bd ETF earns a High Process Pillar rating. 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. The leading factor in the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Excellent risk-adjusted performance also strengthens the process. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process was successful over that period. The parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 58% supports the process. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and surpassed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. Their respectable success ratio suggests that this firm does well for investors and that this fund may benefit from that.

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 price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. 1-3 Year Corporate Bond Index.  The fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, and of its total assets in the securities comprising the index and in securities that the Adviser determines have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of the securities that comprise the index. The index is designed to measure the performance of the short term U.S. corporate bond market.  

 This strategy's 12-month yield is 4.2%, higher than its average peer's 3.7%. In addition, it has a 5.1% 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity). Typically, higher yields come at the cost of higher credit risk. But that isn't always the case. Over the past 12 months, the average yield of the fund has been higher than the average yield of its Morningstar Category peers. The portfolio's average surveyed credit quality is on par with peers, with both the fund and the average being rated A. In terms of long-term interest-rate risk, this strategy is on par with peers. The longer a strategy's duration, the more sensitive it is to shifts in interest rates. This fund, with a 1.8-year duration, is expected to gain 1.8% of its net asset value if interest rates drop by 1 percentage point, and vice versa.

High

Process

SPDR® Portfolio Short Term Corp Bd ETF's strong fixed income team drives the strategy's Above Average People Pillar rating. There are three managers listed on the fund: Frank Miethe, David Marchetti, Christopher DiStefano. Together, they manage a total of four strategies, with solid long-term prospects. The strategies average a Gold asset-weighted Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating a position to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate.  

 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 Portfolio Short Term Corporate Bond ETF

SPSB tracks a market-value-weighted index of fixed-rate investment-grade nonconvertible US corporate bonds with 1-3 years remaining in maturity.

SPSB invests in U.S. investment-grade corporate bonds with a maturity of 1-3 years as a conservative or low-risk bond fund. SPSB is a good alternative to similar maturity Treasuries by offering a higher yield and return potential. SPSB can complement a broader more diversified portfolio to both limit risk while delivering a solid monthly income component.

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SPDR® Portfolio Short Term Corporate Bond ETF has a very low expense ratio and passes you almost the underlying yield. The fund won't make you rich, but offers a solid yield since we exited ZIRP. The yield does make you wonder though whether you should just sit it out in Treasury bills.

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The SPDR Portfolio Short Term Corporate Bond ETF, SPSB, invests based on the Bloomberg U.S. 1-3 Year Corporate Bond Index and has a WAM of 2.04 years: WAC is 3.02%. The SPDR Portfolio Long Term Corporate Bond ETF, SPLB, invests based on the Bloomberg U.S. Long Term Corporate Bond Index and has a WAM of 23.35 years: WAC is 4.5%.

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The SPDR Portfolio Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF has hit a fresh 52-week high. Are more gains in store?

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News for SPDR Portfolio Short Term Corporate Bond ETF ETF (SPSB)