Say you’re an investor seeking dividend yield through an exchange-traded fund. If you are, which of the two following return numbers would look more appealing to you: Would it be the recent 30-day SEC yield of 7% offered by the Global X SuperDividend ETF? Or would it be the 1.66% yield offered by the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF?
Would you rather have the 7.34% yield on the Invesco KBW High Dividend Yield Financial ETF? Or get the 2.1% yield attached to the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF?
These aren’t trick questions. Rather, they speak to the nature of investing in equity income, where reaching for the highest yields isn’t always the best choice for your investing objective.
We aren’t casting aspersions on the Global X and Invesco ETFs. But it’s worth noting they both have concentrated positions in certain sectors, which could impact their long-term performance.
The Global X SuperDividend ETF (SDIV) is designed to invest in 100 of the highest dividend yielding equites globally. As of April 30, the portfolio’s largest sector allocation was in real estate, at 42.7%, followed by energy at 13.2% and financials at 11.1%. Those stakes in real estate and energy are quite high compared to the general category of diversified dividend-focused ETFs.
The Invesco KBW High Dividend Yield Financial ETF (KBWD) focuses on U.S. financial services companies with “competitive yields.” Invesco doesn’t break out sector allocations on the fund’s website, but according to Morningstar it has a 68% allocation to financial services and nearly 31% to real estate.
Does that matter if all clients care about is the yield, and are only concerned that these funds can consistently deliver it? Probably not. But it could matter if you want more from a fund than just high yield.
“The question is how important is income and how important is safety and how important is growth,” says Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA. “Because you can’t have all three. There is no free lunch in dividend investing. You take on risk to get reward, and you reduce your risk profile to get more modest income.”
The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) and the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL), to use two examples, might seem stodgy since their yields are in the neighborhood of roughly 2%. The Vanguard fund is the largest product in this space, with assets of about $60 billion, and tracks the NASDAQ US Dividend Achievers Select Index comprising companies with a track record of annual dividend growth. The ProShares fund is billed as the only ETF focused exclusively on the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, a roster of companies that have grown their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.
Both funds offer diversified allocations, and no sector accounts for more than 25% of the portfolio, so their share price performance tends to reflect that of the overall market over time. That could result in better long-term performance. The Vanguard fund had three- and five-year average annual returns of 17.7% and 15.9% (as of May 10), and the ProShares ETF had annualized returns of 17% and 14.2% during those time frames. That compared to three- and five-year returns on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) of 17.5% and 17.1%.
Meanwhile, the Global X SuperDividend ETF fell 4.2% over three years and rose only 0.43% over the five-year period. The Invesco KBW High Dividend Yield Financial ETF produced gains of 5.4% over three years and 9.3% over five years.
The upshot is that depending on an investor’s goals, there’s more to consider in dividend-focused ETFs than just the yield.