HDV vs SPYD

HDVAiShares Core High Dividend ETF

SPYDAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF

In short

HDV A high-yield screen with a quality gate. HDV holds roughly 80 U.S. dividend payers from a Morningstar index that weighs company quality and value alongside yield, at a Core-lineup fee of 0.08%.

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

HDV The fund seeks to track an index of high-dividend-yielding U.S. stocks and provides income-oriented exposure through U.S. equities.

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

• HDV 0.08% a year is one of the cheaper tickets in the dividend-screen aisle, well under the typical fee among its peers.ishares.com
• The index applies quality and value screens, so a fat yield alone doesn't earn a stock a spot.ishares.com
• Running since 2011 and now a multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund inside the iShares Core lineup. Long-established plumbing, not a new launch.
• Straightforward US stock fund in a standard 1940 Act wrapper, paying income on a quarterly schedule.

• 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

• HDV About 80 holdings, so single names and sector tilts carry more weight here than in a broad-market index fund.
• A yield-and-value screen leans toward mature payers and away from low-payout growth companies, so the mix looks different from the total market.
• Different flavor from cohort stablemate DGRO, which targets dividend growth rather than the highest current yields.

• 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 HDV profile⁠

Full SPYD profile⁠