SNPE Outpaced S&P 500 With Screening and NVIDIA Bet
Xtrackers’ SNPE has risen nearly 200% since its 2019 launch by screening the S&P 500 to about 330 stocks, holding 13.94% in NVIDIA and doubling three-month net inflows after a February rebrand.
Xtrackers S&P 500 Scored & Screened ETF (SNPE) has returned nearly 200% since its June 2019 launch, outpacing the S&P 500 Index and some large S&P 500 ETFs. The fund narrows the S&P 500 universe to roughly 330 holdings and concentrates its portfolio in top names.
SNPE selects constituents from the S&P 500 while applying systematic sustainability and compliance filters. The fund excludes companies that lack an S&P Global ESG score or that rank in the bottom 25% of their GICS industry group. Additional exclusions cover firms linked to tobacco, controversial weapons, thermal coal operations and oil sands above specified revenue or ownership thresholds. The fund also removes firms classified as non-compliant with United Nations Global Compact principles using Sustainalytics data. SNPE tracks the S&P 500 Scored & Screened Index.
Issuer DWS removed “ESG” from the fund name in February to comply with European Securities and Markets Authority and U.K. Sustainability Disclosure Regulations. In the three months after that renaming, SNPE recorded more than $100 million in net inflows, a level more than double the amount for the same three-month period a year earlier. Net assets are about $2.8 billion and the ETF carries a 0.10% expense ratio.
The screening and scoring process reduces the number of holdings compared with a plain S&P 500 product. SNPE holds about 330 stocks versus roughly 503 in a typical S&P 500 fund such as Vanguard’s VOO. The effective number of holdings is 28 for SNPE and 48 for VOO. SNPE’s top-10 weight is 41.93% versus VOO’s 38.35%. Overlap with VOO is about 61%, leaving a 39% divergence in holdings driven by SNPE’s exclusions and scoring.
SNPE’s portfolio includes a large allocation to market leaders. The ETF holds 13.94% in NVIDIA, compared with VOO’s 7.84% stake in the chipmaker. NVIDIA has returned more than 600% over the past three years.
Since inception, SNPE’s total return has exceeded the S&P 500 Index and some peers. The fund is issued by DWS under the Xtrackers brand and follows a rules-based, scored-and-screened approach based on the exclusions and filters described above.
