ETF comparison
IBB vs XLV
Both Healthcare.
iShares Biotechnology ETF · State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF
Holdings overlap
9 positions appear in both funds. Buying equal dollars of IBB and XLV would leave roughly 11.9% of each dollar exposed to the same underlying securities.
Side by side
Sub-score comparison
Tracking quality isn't part of the composite — see what we don't score for why.
Cost difference
XLV is 36 bps cheaper than IBB. On a $100,000 position that's about $360/yr more in fees for IBB.
Fee figure is the annual expense charged on $100,000. To see how the gap compounds over a multi-decade holding period, open the cost calculator pre-filled with IBB vs XLV.
Top shared holdings
9 shared in total| # | Holding | In IBB | In XLV | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amgen, Inc. | 7.51% | 3.57% | 3.57% |
| 2 | Gilead Sciences, Inc. | 7.75% | 3.26% | 3.26% |
| 3 | Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 7.44% | 2.14% | 2.14% |
| 4 | Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 7.21% | 1.47% | 1.47% |
| 5 | Biogen, Inc. | 2.46% | 0.51% | 0.51% |
| 6 | Moderna, Inc. | 1.68% | 0.33% | 0.33% |
| 7 | Incyte Corp. | 1.70% | 0.30% | 0.30% |
| 8 | Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. | 0.77% | 0.16% | 0.16% |
| 9 | Bio-Techne Corp. | 0.74% | 0.15% | 0.15% |
Only in IBB
247 total- BlackRock Funds III 9.66%
- Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 3.99%
- Insmed, Inc. 3.20%
- Argenx SE 3.07%
- Natera, Inc. 2.41%
- United Therapeutics Corp. 2.30%
- BeOne Medicines Ltd. 1.93%
- Illumina, Inc. 1.68%
- Revolution Medicines, Inc. 1.54%
- Roivant Sciences Ltd. 1.24%
Only in XLV
51 total- Eli Lilly & Co 13.74%
- Johnson & Johnson 11.10%
- AbbVie Inc 7.25%
- Merck & Co Inc 5.63%
- UnitedHealth Group Inc 4.62%
- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc 3.48%
- Abbott Laboratories 3.37%
- Intuitive Surgical Inc 3.09%
- Pfizer Inc 3.01%
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co 2.33%
Open IBB or XLV at a brokerage
Both funds trade commission-free at major US brokerages.
Affiliate links — opening an account through these earns PlainIndex a one-time referral. Scoring is computed before any affiliate consideration; see our methodology and funding disclosure.
Holdings overlap is the sum of min(weight_a, weight_b) over positions
matched on ISIN (CUSIP fallback). Methodology: see
/methodology/.
Comparing two funds doesn't endorse swapping one for the other. Tax-lot history, account type, and personal goals matter — PlainIndex publishes data and methodology, not investment advice.