Best Performing Health & Biotechnology ETFs 2015

Health & biotechnology sector ETFs utilizes its assets to purchase stocks of companies involved in providing healthcare services and technological development. Typically, this sector is seen as more defensive rather than cyclical.

Top Biotech ETFs

These top performer ETFs are sorted based on its 1 year return performance up to March 1, 2015. You can find the fund review from this article. Other fund information can be found below such as expense ratio, Morningstar rating, fund’s NAV, managers, fund’s holdings, yield, etc.

Best performing health & biotechnology ETFs 2015 are:

1. First Trust NYSE Arca Biotech ETF (FBT)
2. SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI)
3. iShares US Healthcare Providers ETF (IHF)
4. SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF (XPH)
5. PowerShares Dynamic Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP)
6. SPDR S&P Health Care Services ETF (XHS)
7. iShares US Pharmaceuticals ETF (IHE)
8. Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight HC ETF (RYH)
9. iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB)
10. Market Vectors Biotech ETF (BBH)
11. Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT)
12. Fidelity MSCI Health Care ETF (FHLC)

First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund

This First Trust NYSE Arca Biotech ETF is tracking the price and yield of the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. The current expense fee is 0.60% per year. It has $2.88 billion of assets. The current share price is $115.23. The current dividend yield is only 0.05%.

More: Vanguard Health Care Fund (VGHCX)

Morningstar has ranked this best performing health & biotechnology ETF with 4 star rating. In 2014, this fund has 1 year total return of 47.55%. This ETF has returned 43.19% over the past 3 year, and 29.62% over the past 5 year.

Top 5 stocks in its portfolio are Pharmacyclics Inc, Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc, Novavax Inc, Celldex Therapeutics Inc, and Incyte Corp. The fund has median market cap of $7.5 billion.

SPDR S&P Biotech ETF

This SPDR S&P Biotech ETF is an index ETF that is tracking the total return performance of the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index. It has a low expense fee of 0.35%. This fund has 88 holdings in its assets. It has a yield of 0.93%.

More: Top 6 Health Sector Stock Mutual Funds 2012

This biotech ETF has a 3 year annualized return of 41.59%. For the past 5 year, the fund performance is as follows:

• Year 2014: 44.98%
• Year 2013: 48.39%
• Year 2012: 32.69%
• Year 2011: 5.26%
• Year 2010: 17.60%

Top 3 stocks in its portfolio are Exelixis Inc, Foundation Medicine Inc, and Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. Top sector is biotechnology (100%).

iShares US Healthcare Providers ETF

This iShares US Healthcare Providers ETF is ranked with 3 star rating by Morningstar. This fund provides exposure to U.S. companies that provide health insurance, diagnostics, and specialized treatment. It has total assets of $699 million. Its expense fee is 0.45%.

In 2014, it has 1 year return of 27.19%. This health sector ETF has returned 32.60% over the past 1year, and 25.86% over the past 3 year. Top 3 equities in its assets are UnitedHealth Group Inc, Express Scripts Holding Co, and Anthem Inc.

Fund Performance

No	Fund Name	Ticker	Expense Fee	1 Year Return %
1	First Trust NYSE Arca Biotech ETF	FBT	0.6	38.17
2	SPDR® S&P Biotech ETF	XBI	0.35	32.72
3	iShares US Healthcare Providers	IHF	0.45	32.6
4	SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF	XPH	0.35	31.51
5	PowerShares Dynamic Pharmaceuticals ETF	PJP	0.58	30.88
6	SPDR S&P Health Care Services ETF	XHS	0.35	29.57
7	iShares US Pharmaceuticals	IHE	0.45	29.25
8	Guggenheim S&P 500® Eq Weight HC ETF	RYH	0.4	28.02
9	iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology	IBB	0.48	27.85
10	Market Vectors® Biotech ETF	BBH	0.35	25.1
11	Vanguard Health Care ETF	VHT	0.12	23.69
12	Fidelity MSCI Health Care ETF	FHLC	0.12	23.57
13	Health Care Select Sector SPDR® ETF	XLV	0.15	23.31
14	iShares US Healthcare	IYH	0.45	23.3
15	RBS Global Big Pharma ETN	DRGS	0	22.81
16	PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care ETF	PSCH	0.29	22.65
17	First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX® ETF	FXH	0.67	22.24
18	PowerShares Dynamic Biotech & Genome ETF	PBE	0.59	22.17
19	iShares US Medical Devices	IHI	0.45	21.9
20	SPDR® S&P Health Care Equipment ETF	XHE	0.35	19.99
21	Market Vectors® Pharmaceutical ETF	PPH	0.35	18.36
22	iShares Global Healthcare	IXJ	0.48	16.92
23	PowerShares DWA Healthcare Momentum ETF	PTH	0.64	14.47
24	SPDR® S&P International HealthC Sect ETF	IRY	0.5	7.52
25	ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector ETF	ARKG	0	0
26	BioShares™ Biotechnology Products	BBP	0	0
27	BioShares™ Biotechnology Clinical Trials	BBC	0	0
28	ALPS Medical Breakthroughs ETF	SBIO	0	0