Over the past 10 years, institutional ownership of exchange-traded funds has increased significantly. According to S&P Global, in 2013, asset owners—including pension funds, endowments, foundations and sovereign wealth funds—owned just more than $10 billion in ETFs. By the end of 2023, these funds had more than $56 billion invested using ETFs.
Cerulli Associates research confirms that institutional investors are increasingly utilizing ETFs: Approximately 80% of institutional allocators surveyed by Cerulli have ETFs in their portfolios, but only 16% reported using ETFs as a core portfolio holding. 
State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which tracks the performance of the S&P 500, has more than $600 billion in assets under management, and the ETF has become a staple of some allocators’ portfolios. Data from FactSet Research Systems about Form 13F filings for the third quarter of 2024 showed 23 pension funds holding the SPDR ETF, abbreviated SPY on ETF tracking tickers.
According to the respective companies’ 13Fs, some funds hold between 70% and 100% of their publicly listed assets in a handful of ETFs. These figures do not include mutual fund holdings, international equity exposures or equity exposures from external managers.
Among those with significant allocations, the CVS Health Corp. had more than 71% of its listed portfolio in SPY alone, as of the end of Q3 2024, per the company’s form 13F. SPY was one of only five holdings; three of the other four are also ETFs. The company’s holdings in SPY Increased from 36% in the first quarter of 2023. CVS reported $230 million in assets in its 13F; the company manages $27 billion in assets in a defined contribution plan for plan year 2023, according to the company’s Form 5500. It is not immediately apparent which CVS portfolio holds the ETF assets.
Dow Chemical Co. allocated 91.13% of its assets to the SPY ETF, or $301 million, according to its 13F from Q3 last year. The plan held 7% of its portfolio in two bond ETFs. The $10 billion pension fund was frozen in 2021.
“Large ETF allocations may especially make sense for frozen pensions or those with assets in run-off mode,” says Michael Ashley Schulman, founding partner in and CIO of Running Point Capital Advisors. “They allow for quick portfolio adjustments in response to environmental concerns, risks or new opportunities.”
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in its 13F, reported nearly 100% of its reported holdings, $628 million, in SPY. The endowment manages more than $22 billion in assets.
The Freedom Together Foundation (formerly the JPB Foundation) had allocated 63% of its portfolio, or $595 million, to the SPY ETF in Q3 last year; the rest of its holdings, per its most recent 13F, were in various stocks. The foundation had 2.75 billion in assets in total in 2023.
The University of Illinois Foundation reported 63% of its 13F assets in SPY, or $170 million, with another roughly $90 million in other ETFs. The foundation manages $3 billion in assets in total.
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