Key Morningstar Metrics for State Street SPDR S&P 400 US Mid Cap UCITS ETF SPX4
- : GoldMorningstar Medalist Rating
- : HighProcess Pillar
- : Above AveragePeople Pillar
- : Above AverageParent Pillar
State Street SPDR S&P 400 US Mid Cap ETF offers a diversified exposure to US mid-cap stocks. A soundly constructed and reasonably representative benchmark sets this strategy up to post attractive risk-adjusted returns relative to its peers over the long haul.
The strategy includes the US-domiciled State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 400 Mid Cap ETF and the Ireland-domiciled State Street SPDR S&P 400 US Mid Cap ETF. This strategy has a slight small-cap tilt and a value tilt compared with its average peer. This may make it lag at times when small caps underperform, but it will be better poised to capture more of the upside in the opposite scenario. A significant degree of relative performance can also be attributed to the strategy’s sizable fee advantage, diversified portfolio, and low cash drag.
Diversification is an intrinsic advantage of funds tracking broad market-cap-weighted indexes. However, market-cap weighting has its pluses and minuses. It can be a beneficial approach in momentum-driven bull markets that are characterized by large-cap leadership, such as the postglobal financial crisis charge by US stocks. But it can also lead to significant sector and single-security concentration, as witnessed at the height of the technology bubble. As such, market-cap-weighted indexes’ greatest strength is arguably also their Achilles’ heel. All factors considered, this strategy is a compelling choice to gain exposure to the mid-cap segment of the US equity market, earning it a Process Pillar rating of High.
While there has been mixed performance at times relative to the category average, over longer periods, the US- and Ireland-domiciled funds have outperformed their respective peers.
Moreover, the strategy benefits from State Street Investment Management’s experienced and well-resourced portfolio management team, which earns a People Pillar rating of Above Average.
State Street SPDR S&P 400 US Mid Cap UCITS ETF: Performance Highlights
This strategy has a slight small-cap tilt and a value tilt compared with its average peer. This may make it lag at times when small or value caps underperform, but it will be better poised to capture more of the upside in the opposite scenario. Additionally, the strategy’s greater small-cap exposure will differentiate its performance relative to its category peers. This is because small-cap stocks are typically more volatile, although decades of empirical evidence suggest the small-size factor is linked to excess returns over long investment periods.
The Ireland-domiciled SPDR S&P 400 US Mid Cap ETF has tracked the S&P MidCap 400 Index using full physical replication since its inception in January 2012. The fund outperformed the EAA fund US mid-cap equity category average over trailing three-, five-, and 10-year periods in terms of both absolute and risk-adjusted returns, to end-July 2026.
The US-domiciled SPDR Portfolio S&P 400 Mid Cap ETF has had several changes to its target index since its inception in November 2005; however, the fund has tracked the S&P MidCap 400 Index since Jan. 24, 2020, so we focus on performance subsequent to that date. The US-domiciled fund, relative to the US fund mid-cap blend category average, underperformed over the trailing three-year period and outperformed over the trailing five-year period in terms of absolute and risk-adjusted returns, to end-July 2026.
This broadly diversified market-cap-weighted strategy’s similarity to the category average, low cash drag, and its low-fee advantage have contributed to its longer-term category-relative outperformance on both an absolute and risk-adjusted basis.
