Five Biotech ETFs Posting Strong Second-Halfs: From ALPS Medical Breakthroughs (SBIO) To The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI)

Moving on to more popular biotech ETFs, we’ve got the ProShares Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:BIB), which was held by two of the funds in our database at the end of the second quarter. Once again, Citadel Advisors was included in this group, owning 33,894 shares of it valued at $1.3 billion on June 30. The other bull was Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. Del Valle’s Springbok Capital Management, which held 1,055 shares.

The ProShares Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:BIB) seeks to replicate 2-times the daily performance of the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (ETF) (NASDAQ:IBB), which in turn tracks mostly large-cap, Nasdaq-traded biotech and pharma companies. The ETF has plummeted more than 41% year-to-date, but has posted gains of 13.62% since June 27.

Second-to-last in this list is the BioShares Biotechnology Products Fund (NASDAQ:BBP) ETF, which has managed to lose just 1.2% year-to-date, in spite of a very rocky start to the year. In fact, since mid-February, the ETF has gained more than 35%. Having said that, its performance in the last month has been relatively poor, though it still maintains gains of 18.25% since June 27. The ETF tracks the performance of the BioShares Biotechnology Products Index, which includes biotech companies in a “product stage”.

BioShares Biotechnology Products Fund (NASDAQ:BBP) was not particularly popular among institutional investors either, being held by less than 15 13F-filing firms at the end of June. Among the funds that we track, only Citadel had a long position in it earlier this year, comprised of 8,756 shares on March 31, but it sold out of it between April and June.

Finally, there’s the SPDR S&P Biotech (ETF) (NYSEARCA:XBI), which 11 hedge funds in our database were long as of June 30. That group included Samuel Isaly’s OrbiMed Advisors, which held 745,300 shares of the ETF worth $40.3 million on June 30, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, with 191,000 shares.

The SPDR S&P Biotech (ETF) (NYSEARCA:XBI), which tracks the performance of the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index (INDEXSP:SPSIBI), and an equal-weighted index of US-traded biotech companies, has lost 14.85% this year, and has also struggled this month, as the industry has taken another downturn. However, the ETF is still up by more than 15% since June 27.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned in this article.