DVY vs SPYD

DVYBiShares Select Dividend ETF

SPYDAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF

In short

DVY One of the original US dividend ETFs (2003). It starts with the high yielders, then makes them prove they can keep paying, landing on about 100 names from a rules-based screen rather than a market-cap sweep.

SPYD Most dividend ETFs hunt for companies that keep raising payouts. SPYD skips the courtship and goes straight for the yield: roughly 80 high-dividend names out of the S&P 500, for 0.07% a year.

Stated mandate

DVY The Fund tracks an index of relatively high dividend-paying U.S. equities, using a rules-based selection of high-yielding stocks with dividend sustainability and liquidity requirements.

SPYD The fund seeks to provide returns that generally correspond to the total return of the S&P 500 High Dividend Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• DVY Launched in 2003, one of the first dividend ETFs on the market, and today a multi-billion-dollar fund with two decades of live history behind the strategy.ishares.com
• The index screens for dividend sustainability and liquidity, not just a fat yield, so a name has to show it can keep the checks coming to get in.ishares.com
• Tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index closely, trades with everyday liquidity, and distributes quarterly.
• Among the stronger implementations in the US dividend-screen crowd: the fund delivers the mandate its documents describe, without structural asterisks.

• SPYD 0.07% a year against a 0.39% median across dividend-screen peers. It undercuts DGRO's 0.08% and sits a hair above SCHD.
• A pure yield screen, not a growth screen. Where VIG and DGRO buy payout raisers, SPYD takes the high-dividend end of the S&P 500. Different flavor of the same food group.
• Running since 2015, now a multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded names in its cohort, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• Pays quarterly and has tracked the S&P 500 High Dividend Index closely, which is the whole job for a fund like this.

Worth knowing

• DVY At 0.38% it sits near the middle of dividend screeners, but rivals like SCHD (0.06%) and VIG (0.04%) run their versions for a fraction of the fee.
• A yield-first screen of roughly 100 stocks leans toward mature, income-heavy industries, so sector weights can look nothing like a broad market fund.
• US equities only. Foreign dividend payers sit outside the mandate.

• SPYD About 80 stocks is a narrow slice. Screening on yield pulls the sector mix away from the broad S&P 500, and the ride can be bumpier than the index it comes from.
• A high yield is a ranking, not a promise. The index sorts on payout size, not on how reliably a company has grown or defended that payout.

Full DVY profile⁠

Full SPYD profile⁠