First Trust Dividend Strength ETF
$63.48−0.07 (−0.11%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.81%
- Fund size
- $38M
- 1Y return
- +17.0%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 1.55%
- Holdings
- 50
- Volume · 30D
- 0M sh
- NAV per share
- $63.99
- 52W range
The ETF.net FTDS Grade
Score 39 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.FScore 0Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 83Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 41Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.DScore 30Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.BScore 57Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.CScore 53Category rank
Our read on FTDS
CA dividend fund that screens for growth, profitability and quality instead of chasing the fattest yields, then concentrates the result into roughly 50 US stocks. Boutique size, boutique price.
The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of The Dividend Strength Index before fees and expenses.
Why people hold it
- Screens dividend payers on growth, profitability and quality, so the shortlist rests on the business behind the check rather than the headline yield.
- About 50 holdings, so each name carries real weight instead of being diluted inside a several-hundred-stock basket.
- Rules-based rather than manager hunches: it tracks The Dividend Strength Index, and distributions come quarterly.
- Live since 2006, a long real-world record for a factor-screened dividend strategy.
Worth knowing
- The fee is the headline trade-off: 0.81% a year, roughly double the typical dividend-screen fund, while the category giants SCHD (0.06%) and VIG (0.04%) charge a sliver of that.
- Small and thinly traded next to the household-name dividend ETFs, which means wider bid-ask spreads. The spread is part of what you pay.
- Concentration cuts both ways. With about 50 names, a stumble in a handful of holdings lands harder than it would in a broad dividend index.
FTDS Holdings
- Stocks
- 50
- 23%
- CTSH
Sectors
- Financials25.8%
- Energy20.9%
- Industrials17.4%
- Technology15.9%
- Health Care6.1%
- Materials5.8%
- Consumer Discr.4.3%
- Cons. Staples3.9%
Geography
- United States93.70%
- Ireland2.19%
- Switzerland2.17%
- Bermuda1.93%
FTDS 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 | FTDS |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +13.4% |
| 1 month | −4.8% |
| 3 months | +6.8% |
| 1 year | +17.0% |
| 3 years | +17.0% |
| 5 years | +7.9% |
| 10 years | +11.0% |
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 | FTDS |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +13.4% | |
| 2025 | +13.6% | |
| 2024 | +11.1% | |
| 2023 | +11.7% | |
| 2022 | −13.5% | |
| 2021 | +24.8% | |
| 2020 | +14.1% |
FTDS in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on FTDS yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
FTDS Dividends
- 1.55%
- $0.99
- $0.19 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.19 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.31 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.25 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.23 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.20 |
| Mar 27, 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 | $0.22 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.34 |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Sep 30, 2024 | $0.23 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | Jun 28, 2024 | $0.27 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | Mar 28, 2024 | $0.19 |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.38 |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Sep 29, 2023 | $0.14 |
FTDS Risk
- 13.1%
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.
- 0.95
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.
- −23.4%
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.
- 0.59
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FTDS Cost
- The middle half of US Dividend Index funds
- Median 0.38%
Every other US Dividend Index fund charges less.