ETF comparison
ITA vs XAR
Both Industrials.
iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF · State Street SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF
Holdings overlap
41 positions appear in both funds. Buying equal dollars of ITA and XAR would leave roughly 53.9% 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
XAR is 3 bps cheaper than ITA. On a $100,000 position that's about $30/yr more in fees for ITA.
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 ITA vs XAR.
Top shared holdings
41 shared in total| # | Holding | In ITA | In XAR | Overlap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GENERAL DYNAMICS CORPORATION | 4.77% | 3.21% | 3.21% |
| 2 | L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | 4.66% | 3.14% | 3.14% |
| 3 | RTX CORPORATION | 16.55% | 3.08% | 3.08% |
| 4 | LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION | 4.58% | 3.08% | 3.08% |
| 5 | Northrop Grumman Corporation | 4.58% | 3.08% | 3.08% |
| 6 | THE BOEING COMPANY | 8.91% | 3.08% | 3.08% |
| 7 | TRANSDIGM GROUP INCORPORATED | 4.53% | 3.05% | 3.05% |
| 8 | HOWMET AEROSPACE INC. | 4.50% | 3.04% | 3.04% |
| 9 | GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY | 19.03% | 2.89% | 2.89% |
| 10 | AXON ENTERPRISE, INC. | 2.83% | 2.72% | 2.72% |
| 11 | ROCKET LAB CORPORATION | 2.55% | 2.96% | 2.55% |
| 12 | FTAI Aviation Ltd. | 2.12% | 3.12% | 2.12% |
Only in ITA
3 total- HEICO CORPORATION 1.38%
- STURM, RUGER & COMPANY, INC. 0.05%
- SMITH & WESSON BRANDS, INC. 0.05%
Only in XAR
1 total- State Street Global Advisors 0.09%
Open ITA or XAR 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.