Up until recently the Fidelity Select Biotechnology Fund (FBIOX) has outperformed all ETFs but now the IBB and PBE are leaders over the last 3 months. There have been two recent mini-corrections but over the past two weeks the IBB has soared up almost 15% for the past 3 months.The PBE has also outperformed but the market cap is still very small at $272M, compared to $3.86B for the IBB.
Here is the YTD performance for major ETFs compared to FBIOX:
FBIOX ($176) up 55% YTD but below its 2013 high of $178.(11/25 not included)
PBE ($37.60)up 65% YTD. Riding “coat tails” of other funds weighted in BIIB, GILD and REGN plus ILMN.
IBB ($223) up 62.5% YTD. Heavily weighted in BIIB,GILD and REGN.
FBT ($68.35) up 48.75% YTD.
XBI ($127.50) up 45% YTD.
Without a detailed analysis it would appear that all of these funds hold the same large cap stocks. The XBI has more smaller cap stocks like HALO,OPK and KERX. The only small cap among top holdings in FBIOX is Aegerion (AEGR $68) which could account for its meteoric rise, but it is 30 pts. off its highs today.
Here is our last ETF review on September 24, 2013.
Just say no to mid-cap momentum stocks. Large caps with revenues rule.
Here is latest chart: