First Trust Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index Fund
$50.53−0.17 (−0.35%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.43%
- Fund size
- $7.8B
- 1Y return
- +21.9%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 3.64%
- Holdings
- 100
- Volume · 30D
- 0.8M sh
- NAV per share
- $50.88
- 52W range
The ETF.net FDL Grade
Score 54 of 100 sits in the C band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.DScore 29Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.BScore 64Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.AScore 77Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 77Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.DScore 25Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 79Category rank
Our read on FDL
CFDL doesn't weight by company size or by yield. It weights by dividend dollars, so America's biggest cash payers carry the most weight. Roughly 100 high-yield names, screened for payouts they can keep funding, running since 2006.
The fund is an exchange-traded index fund seeking to replicate the price and yield of the Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index before fees and expenses.
Why people hold it
- Weight follows the checkbook: positions are sized by the dollar value of dividends paid, with any single name capped at 10% and all 5%-plus names capped at 50% combined.assets.contentstack.io
- The screen is about payout durability, not just headline yield: stocks need a consistent payment record and the ability to sustain it before the top 100 yielders are taken.finance.yahoo.com
- Trading since 2006, a multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands actively and pays on a quarterly schedule.
- Lands in the upper half of a US dividend-screen peer group of roughly 50 funds.
Worth knowing
- At 0.43% it costs more than the cheap index heavyweights in the group (VIG 0.04%, SCHD 0.06%, DGRO 0.08%) and sits a little above the peer median.
- Concentrated by design: about 100 names, non-diversified, and the dividend-dollar math tilts toward the mega-caps and sectors writing the biggest checks.finance.yahoo.comassets.contentstack.io
- Yield-first, not dividend-growth. The portfolio looks different from growth-screened peers like VIG and DGRO, which start from rising payouts instead of high ones.finance.yahoo.com
FDL Holdings
- Stocks
- 100
- 50%
- CVX
Sectors
- Cons. Staples23.4%
- Financials13.4%
- Utilities13.3%
- Health Care12.6%
- Energy12.2%
- Communication11.9%
- Technology5.4%
- Consumer Discr.4.2%
- Industrials3.3%
- Materials0.4%
Geography
- United States93.72%
- Ireland5.55%
- Switzerland0.73%
FDL Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | FDL |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +16.4% |
| 1 month | −4.5% |
| 3 months | +4.6% |
| 1 year | +21.9% |
| 3 years | +19.4% |
| 5 years | +13.9% |
| 10 years | +10.8% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | FDL |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +16.4% | |
| 2025 | +14.8% | |
| 2024 | +18.0% | |
| 2023 | +2.9% | |
| 2022 | +6.7% | |
| 2021 | +26.1% | |
| 2020 | −4.4% |
FDL in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on FDL yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
FDL Dividends
- 3.64%
- $1.85
- $0.47 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.47 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.40 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.55 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.42 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.46 |
| Mar 27, 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 | $0.36 |
| Dec 31, 2024 | Data unavailable | $0.30 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.49 |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Sep 30, 2024 | $0.39 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | Jun 28, 2024 | $0.49 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | Mar 28, 2024 | $0.33 |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.52 |
FDL Risk
- 12.9%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 1.15
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −16.4%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.39
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FDL Cost
- The middle half of US Dividend Index funds
- Median 0.38%
37 of the 52 US Dividend Index funds charge less.