ETFs / XLE
What If You Had Invested in XLE 10 Years Ago?
Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
XLE $61.62 ▼ -0.02% last close, Nov 06, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in XLE in November 2016, today it would be worth
$2,485
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,907
If you had put $500 a month into XLE since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$137,607
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $129,289
More options in the What If calculator.
XLE live price chart
XLE returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | +40.1% | +40.1% | $1,401 | +8.8% |
| 3 years | +60.2% | +17.0% | $1,602 | +18.7% |
| 5 years | +169.1% | +21.9% | $2,691 | +11.5% |
| 10 years | +148.5% | +9.5% | $2,485 | +14.6% |
| 20 years | +268.8% | +6.7% | $3,688 | +10.6% |
| Since 1998 | +984.7% | +8.9% | $10,847 | — |
XLE year by year
Best full year: 2022 (+64.3%). Worst: 2008 (-39.0%).
| Year | XLE | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | +40.6% | +8.7% | |
| 2025 | +7.9% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | +5.6% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | -0.6% | +26.2% | |
| 2022 | +64.3% | -18.2% | Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring. XLE gained about 64% in a year when the S&P 500 fell. |
| 2021 | +53.3% | +28.7% | |
| 2020 | -32.7% | +18.3% | Lockdowns wiped out fuel demand, and in April U.S. oil futures briefly traded below zero. XLE lost about a third. |
| 2019 | +11.7% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | -18.2% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | -0.9% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | +28.0% | +12.0% | |
| 2015 | -21.5% | +1.2% | Oil fell from over $100 in mid-2014 to under $40, as U.S. shale output surged and OPEC chose not to cut production. |
| 2014 | -8.7% | +13.5% | |
| 2013 | +26.2% | +32.3% | |
| 2012 | +5.2% | +16.0% | |
| 2011 | +2.8% | +1.9% | |
| 2010 | +21.8% | +15.1% | |
| 2009 | +21.8% | +26.4% | |
| 2008 | -39.0% | -36.8% | Oil hit about $147 a barrel in July and then collapsed below $40 by December as the financial crisis crushed demand. |
| 2007 | +36.9% | +5.1% |
XLE: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 1998 (324 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 208 (64%). XLE's long boom-and-bust cycles make it one of the funds here where monthly buying won most often, especially for starts in 2001, 2008, 2014-2015 and 2018-2019, each just before oil prices slumped. The best case for monthly investing was a start in June 2008, when it finished the year 64% ahead.
Worst drop
XLE's worst fall in this history was -64.0%, a loss of more than half, from June 2014 to March 2020. Getting back to the old high took until March 2022: 24 months from the bottom and 7.8 years from the peak. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $360 at the low.
Oil above $100 in mid-2014 marked the peak. A flood of U.S. shale oil and OPEC's decision not to cut production started the slide, and the pandemic finished it: by March 2020 XLE had lost almost two thirds. It took the 2022 energy price spike after Russia invaded Ukraine to get back.
XLE dividends
XLE paid $1.52 per share over the last 12 months, in March, June, September and December. At $61.62 that is 2.47%, a moderate yield. From 2020 to 2025 the yearly payout grew +6.6% a year, steadily. The yearly total fell in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2023, 2024. Fund payouts move around with what the holdings pay, so a lower year is not a cut in the usual sense. Amounts are adjusted for splits.
| Year | Dividends / share | Change | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $1.46 | +1.8% | 3.28% |
| 2024 | $1.44 | -3.4% | 3.36% |
| 2023 | $1.49 | -7.6% | 3.55% |
| 2022 | $1.61 | +37.8% | 3.68% |
| 2021 | $1.17 | +9.7% | 4.21% |
| 2020 | $1.07 | -47.2% | 5.62% |
| 2019 | $2.02 | +98.7% | 6.72% |
| 2018 | $1.02 | -7.3% | 3.54% |
| 2017 | $1.10 | +28.8% | 3.03% |
| 2016 | $0.85 | -16.8% | 2.26% |
Yield = each year’s dividends divided by the price at the end of the year.
XLE dividend history: last 12 payments
| Ex-dividend date | Amount | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 21, 2026 | $0.3800 | -1.3% |
| Jun 22, 2026 | $0.3850 | +0.0% |
| Mar 23, 2026 | $0.3850 | +3.2% |
| Dec 22, 2025 | $0.3730 | -0.4% |
| Sep 22, 2025 | $0.3745 | +4.3% |
| Jun 23, 2025 | $0.3590 | +0.3% |
| Mar 24, 2025 | $0.3580 | +2.3% |
| Dec 23, 2024 | $0.3500 | -3.7% |
| Sep 23, 2024 | $0.3635 | +1.7% |
| Jun 24, 2024 | $0.3575 | -2.6% |
| Mar 18, 2024 | $0.3670 | -8.5% |
| Dec 18, 2023 | $0.4010 | — |
How much XLE do you need for $1,000 a month?
About $485,515, or roughly 7,879 shares at $61.62. That uses XLE's last 12 months of dividends ($1.52 a share, a 2.47% yield) and is before tax.
| Income | Invest | Shares | Paid as |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $242,758 | 3,940 | $1,500/qtr |
| $1,000 | $485,515 | 7,879 | $3,000/qtr |
| $2,000 | $971,031 | 15,758 | $6,000/qtr |
XLE pays quarterly (ex-dividend in Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec), so “$1,000 a month” really arrives as about $3,000 four times a year.
The payout grew 6.6% a year over the last five years. If it kept that pace, about $256,999 invested today, with nothing added and nothing reinvested, would be paying $1,000 a month ten years from now. That is a projection, not a promise.
These are mostly qualified dividends, taxed at 0%, 15% or 20% at the federal level depending on your income, plus any state tax. In an IRA or Roth IRA there is no tax on them along the way.
Want to build toward it with monthly buys? Try the dividend calculator with XLE's numbers filled in.
Stock splits
- December 2025: 2-for-1
About XLE
| Issuer | State Street |
| Launched | December 1998 |
| Tracks | Energy Select Sector Index (S&P 500 energy stocks) |
| Expense ratio | 0.08% |
| Holdings | About 20 to 25 U.S. energy companies |
Fund details as of 2025. Check the issuer for the current expense ratio and holdings.
XLE holds the energy companies in the S&P 500: oil and gas producers, refiners, pipeline operators and oilfield service firms. It is weighted by size with caps, and Exxon Mobil and Chevron together usually make up around 40% of the fund.
Its returns follow oil prices more than the stock market. That is why XLE's history looks nothing like VOO's: big gains in the 2000s commodity boom, a long slide from 2014 to 2020 as U.S. shale oil flooded the market, and a sharp rebound in 2021 and 2022.
A hedge, sometimes
Energy stocks often rise when inflation and oil prices jump, which is when most other stocks struggle. 2022 was the clearest case: XLE gained about 64% while the S&P 500 fell. But the hedge is unreliable. In 2008 and 2020, when the economy itself collapsed, energy fell as hard as anything.
Two companies, one fund
Because of the size of Exxon Mobil and Chevron, XLE's result in any year depends heavily on those two stocks. If you already own XOM or CVX, XLE adds less diversification than it seems to.
Questions about XLE
Did XLE beat the S&P 500?
No. Over the last 20 years it trailed by 3.9 percentage points a year: +6.7% a year for XLE against +10.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. It also fell harder at its worst (-64.0% against -50.8% for SPY over the same history).
Does XLE pay a high dividend?
Higher than the S&P 500. Exxon and Chevron are steady dividend payers and make up a large part of the fund, so XLE's yield is usually about twice VOO's or more. But energy dividends can be cut when oil crashes, as several of its holdings did in 2020.