SPDR® Blackstone High Income ETF (HYBL) Three-year Performance Update
Now that HYBL has reached its 3-year milestone, explore the ETF’s performance to see how the fund may be able to contribute to your portfolio.
The SPDR® Blackstone High Income ETF (HYBL) reached an important milestone — its 3-year track record — on February 16, 2025, receiving a 4-star rating from Morningstar.1
Over those three years since inception, HYBL has been a top quintile performer, outperforming 85% of its peers in the Morningstar High Yield bond category. Its risk-adjusted return also ranks in the top 15%. In all, HYBL ranks in the top quintile or better relative to its peers across six different metrics.2
Actively managed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance, HYBL is an active high-income strategy seeking to provide an attractive risk-adjusted total return and high current income, with less volatility than the general bond and loan markets over full market cycles.
About HYBL’s Investment Approach
Blackstone employs a top-down asset allocation approach — evaluating macroeconomic, technical, fundamental, and relative value factors to determine the allocation weights of high yield corporate bonds, senior loans, and debt tranches of US collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) — to pursue the best long-term risk-adjusted returns.
Seeking to maximize alpha, top-down asset allocation is coupled with bottom-up security selection. For the senior loan and CLO portion of the portfolio, Blackstone uses a traditional discretionary approach that relies on fundamental credit analysis in an effort to minimize loss of capital.
For high yield corporate bonds, Blackstone uses a systematic approach with a propriety model. The model seeks to identify the most liquid, positively mispriced credit issues while minimizing exposure to systematic credit risks.
As a result, HYBL has the potential to derive alpha and income from four main sources:
- Asset class allocation between high yield and senior loans
- High yield credit selection
- Senior loan credit selection
- Opportunistic CLO debt allocation
HYBL Performance Trends and Rankings
Since inception, HYBL has delivered an annualized net return of 5.61%.3 This ranks in the top quintile of the Morningstar High Yield Bond Category, outperforming the median manager by 93 basis points. And HYBL’s recent 12-month yield ranks in the 10th percentile in its peer group (Figure 1).
The fund has generated excess return and high income over the past three years without taking on excess risk. Given Blackstone’s dynamic approach to portfolio construction and risk management, HYBL’s three-year standard deviation of returns is lower than 86% of its peers, while its maximum drawdown is lower than 84% of its peers (Figure 1).
Figure 1: HYBL Performance Metrics
| 12-month Yield (%) | Annualized Return (%) | Standard Deviation (%) | Max Drawdown (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HYBL | 7.78 | 5.61 | 4.34 | -8.75 |
| Median | 6.45 | 4.68 | 6.40 | -11.43 |
| Difference to Median | 1.34 | 0.93 | -2.06 | 2.69 |
| HYBL Percentile Rank | 10 | 15 | 14 | 16 |
Source: Morningstar as of February 28, 2025. Peer group consists of all mutual funds and ETFs in the Morningstar High Yield Bond Category, oldest share class only (199 funds). Standard deviation peer grouping is inverted where lower = better. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Comparing HYBL’s income enhancement per unit of excess risk to a broad high yield benchmark underscores Blackstone’s expertise in building a strategy with an attractive risk-adjusted total return and high current income.
Versus the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, HYBL’s excess-yield-per-unit-of-excess-risk ratio — a metric similar to an Information Ratio, but with excess income in the numerator to derive an Income Information Ratio — is positive.4 So, a yield higher than the broad high yield index is not the result of taking on sizable excess and uncompensated risks. And HYBL’s Income Information Ratio is higher than 91% of its peers.5
HYBLs 1.79 yield-per-unit-of-total-absolute-portfolio-volatility ratio — nearly twice the category’s median of 1.02 and ranking in the top 8% of the category6 — highlights how its three-year track record stands above-and-beyond many of its peers over the same time frame.
HYBL Ranks in Top Quintile Across Six Metrics
| Metrics | Rank |
|---|---|
| 12-month Yield | 10th |
| Annualized Return | 15th |
| Standard Deviation | 14th |
| Max Drawdown | 16th |
| Income Information Ratio | 9th |
| Yield per Unit of Volatility | 8th |
Figure 2: Standard Performance
| Annualized | ||||||||||
| Ticker | Name | QTD | YTD | 1 Year | 3 Year |
5 Year | 10 Year | Since Inception | Inception Date | Gross Expense Ratio (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HYBL (NAV) | SPDR® Blackstone High Income ETF | 1.46% | 8.91% | 8.91% | - | - | - | 5.42% | 2/16/2022 | 0.7 |
| HYBL (MKT) | SPDR® Blackstone High Income ETF | 1.34% | 9.12% | 9.12% | - | - | - | 5.48% |
Source: Ssga.com, as of December 31, 2024. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate, so you may have a gain or loss when shares are sold. Current performance may be higher or lower than that quotes. All results are historical and assume the reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Visit ssga.com for most recent month-end performance. Performance returns for periods of less than one year are not annualized. The gross expense ratio is the fund’s total annual operating expense ratio. It is gross of any fee waivers or expense reimbursements. The market price used to calculate the Market Value return is the midpoint between the highest bid and the lowest offer on the exchange on which the shares of the fund are listed for trading, as of the time that the fund’s NAV is calculates. If you trade your shares at another time, your returns may differ. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Index returns are unmanaged and do not reflect the deduction of any fees or expenses. Index returns reflect all items of income, gain and loss and the reinvestment of dividends and other income as applicable. Index performance is not meant to represent that of any particular fund. Gross Expense Ratio: 0.70%, Net Expense Ratio: 0.70%.