A sound investment process and strong management team underpin SPDR® Bloomberg 3-12 Mth TBill ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's investment process inspires confidence and earns a High Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant underweight 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® Bloomberg 3-12 Mth TBill 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 benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. The most significant contributor to 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. The parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 57% also supports the process. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. Their respectable success ratio suggests that the firm does well for investors and that this fund may benefit from that. The parent firm's excellent risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.2 stars, supports the process as well.

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 3-12 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index.  In seeking to track the performance of the index, the fund employs a sampling strategy, and which means that the fund is not required to purchase all of the securities represented in the index. The index is designed to measure the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 3 months and less than 12 months.  

 This strategy has a 5.1% 12-month yield, higher than its average peer's 4.8%. While a higher yield may deliver more income, it also tends to indicate 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 has a higher average surveyed credit quality of AA, compared with the category average of A, and it holds no non-investment-grade assets, despite the average peers' 3%. Strategies that take on less credit risk can often weather more-adverse market conditions. 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 0.3-year duration, is expected to gain 0.3% of its net asset value if interest rates drop by 1 percentage point, and vice versa.

High

Process

State Street’s team is strong compared with others in the industry, resulting in an Above Average People Pillar rating. There are two managers listed on the fund: Todd Bean, Sean Lussier. Experience on the team is abundant, with 12 years of average portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of two strategies, with a Bronze asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, demonstrating their potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate. The team has faced turnover as of late, with April Borawski leaving within the last five months. Even though it is a passive fund, high turnover can still hinder the effectiveness of the investment process. 

 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 Bloomberg 3-12 Month T-Bill ETF

BILS tracks a market value-weighted index of US Treasury bills with maturities between 3-12 months.

SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF

SPDR Gold Trust

Amrita Roy and Rob Isbitts are bullish on T-bills and gold as defensive investments in the current macroeconomic environment.

T-Bills, Gold And Macro Volatility

The SPDR® Bloomberg 3-12 Month T-Bill ETF tracks the Bloomberg 3-12 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index. The BILS fund has a slightly lower performance compared to the index due to its annual expense ratio. The fund is well-positioned for potential rate cuts and is a good choice for investors who believe rate cuts of this magnitude will not occur.

BILS: A Place To Park Cash To Pay The Bills

ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF

iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF

NVIDIA

Invesco QQQ

ATAC US Rotation ETF

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust

US Treasury 3 Month Bill Etf

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

United States Oil Fund LP

Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund

Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund

Michael Gayed predicts a credit event in the market and warns of longer-term concerns around U.S. debt trajectory. He discusses the disconnects in the AI mania and inter-market dynamics.

Michael Gayed On Credit Event Phases And The Fed's Unprecedented Moves

BILS is an ETF that tracks the Bloomberg 3-12 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index, investing primarily in U.S. Treasury Bills with maturities between 3 and 12 months. BILS serves as a cash parking vehicle, offering a slightly higher duration compared to its competitors. It has an AUM of $2.8 billion, a 30-Day SEC Yield of 5.2%, a low expense ratio of 0.135%, and a duration of 0.38 years.

BILS: Rolling 4 Months T-Bills In An ETF Format

Longer duration Treasuries are in turmoil, but the front end has been relatively stable. While issuance will ramp up into the year-end, there's enough demand to absorb incoming bill supply. At ~5%, low-cost T-bill ETFs offer a compelling balance of yield and principal protection.

BILS: Finding Shelter In Shorter Duration Treasuries

JPMorgan BetaBuilders 1-5 Year US Aggregate Bond ETF

Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury ETF

BlackRock Enhanced Government Fund

iShares MSCI Japan ETF

iShares U.S. Fixed Income Balanced Risk Factor ETF

Goldman Sachs TreasuryAccess 0-1 Year ETF

iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF

iShares 25+ Year Treasury STRIPS Bond ETF

Invesco Ultra Short Duration ETF

iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF

ClearShares Ultra-Short Maturity ETF

Invesco 1-30 Laddered Treasury ETF

ProShares UltraShort 7-10 Year Treasury

ProShares Inflation Expectations ETF

Schwab Short-Term US Treasury ETF

Schwab Long-Term US Treasury ETF

Schwab Intermediate-Term US Treasury ETF

iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF

iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF

The market is showing signs of weakness and lacks sustainable upside momentum. The recent sell-off has broken key moving averages, indicating a potential shift in market sentiment.

Selling Time? Oil, Inflation, Debt Concerns And A T-Bill Portfolio

iShares Floating Rate Bond ETF

SPDR Bloomberg Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF

VanEck Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF

First Trust Preferred Securities & Income ETF

iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF 

It's no secret that we are currently in a high interest rate environment. The Federal Funds rate, the benchmark rate in the U.S. set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), currently sits between the range of 5.00% and 5.25%.

Three Ways to Take Advantage of High Interest Rates

Fed funds rate is now above 5%. The yield offered by BILS from a portfolio of T-bills is 5%.

BILS: 5% Isn't Good Enough

Amplify AI Powered Equity ETF

Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF

ARK Web x.0 ETF

Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF

BNY Mellon US Large Cap Core Equity ETF

First Trust Nasdaq Artificial Intelligence & Robotics ETF

SPDR Portfolio TIPS ETF

United States Natural Gas Fund LP

Investors are flocking to artificial intelligence (AI) ETFs, as well as short-duration Treasuries ETFs and zero-fee core equity exposure, reveals recent advisor research data.

Rising ETF Stars: Who's Afraid Of AI ETFs?

This key Berkshire Hathaway holding offers an impressive yield amid tough stock market conditions.

Warren Buffett Is Buying Treasury Bills Hand Over Fist. Is Now a Good Time to Buy?

iShares 0-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

SLQD offered a very poor return profile when we last covered it. Things have improved materially and you are now getting paid to buy the fund.

SLQD: Why We Prefer BILS Here

News for SPDR Bloomberg 3-12 Month T-Bill ETF ETF (BILS)