DGRO vs SYLD

DGROAiShares Core Dividend Growth ETF

SYLDDCambria Shareholder Yield ETF

In short

DGRO BlackRock's dividend-growth screen casts a wider net than most: five straight years of raises rather than ten, plus a payout-ratio cap that filters out stretched payers. About 400 US dividend raisers, large through small cap, for 0.08% a year.

SYLD Most dividend funds count one thing: the payout. SYLD counts every way a company hands cash back, dividends, buybacks and debt paydown, in an active, roughly 100-stock US portfolio running since 2013.

Stated mandate

DGRO The fund seeks to follow an index of U.S. equities whose dividends have grown consistently.

SYLD The fund seeks income and capital appreciation through an actively managed portfolio of U.S.-based publicly listed companies with high shareholder yield, measured through dividends, buybacks and debt paydowns.

Why people hold it

• DGRO Costs 0.08% a year, a small fraction of the typical fee among US dividend-screen ETFs.
• The screen has teeth: a qualified dividend, five years of uninterrupted dividend growth, a payout ratio under 75%, and the top decile of yielders cut before the other tests run.ishares.com
• Roughly 400 names across large, mid and small caps, weighted by the dividend dollars each company pays rather than by market cap.ishares.comcib.barclays
• Tracks the Morningstar US Dividend Growth Index about as tightly as this group gets, and it's an actively traded, multi-billion-dollar fund that has run since 2014.

• SYLD Dividends are one route back to shareholders. This screen also credits buybacks and debt paydown, so it can own cash generators a pure yield list skips.cambriafunds.com
• Actively managed, not index-tracking: about 100 US names chosen on cash returned, rather than whatever a fixed rulebook happens to catch at rebalance.
• Live since 2013 with billions in assets and quarterly distributions. A funded, road-tested strategy, not a launch-year experiment.

Worth knowing

• DGRO Chopping the highest-yielding decile is deliberate: this is built around payout growth and dividend durability, not the fattest current yield on the shelf.ishares.com
• Only dividend payers qualify, so some of the market's biggest non-paying growth companies sit outside the portfolio by rule.ishares.com
• Income arrives quarterly, not monthly, and this is plain US stock exposure: no buffer, no hedge, full equity risk.

• SYLD At 0.59% it costs more than the typical dividend-screen fund, and index heavyweights like SCHD and VIG charge a fraction of that. Active picking is the bill.
• Thinly traded next to the big dividend ETFs, so spreads and limit orders deserve a look before you hit the button.
• It measures itself against the S&P 500 while holding about 100 value-tilted names, so its path can diverge widely from the broad market in either direction.

Full DGRO profile⁠

Full SYLD profile⁠