SDVY vs SPYD

SDVYCFirst Trust SMID Cap Rising Dividend Achievers ETF

SPYDAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF

In short

SDVY Most dividend-growth funds fish in blue-chip waters. SDVY takes the same idea down the size scale: a Nasdaq index of small and mid cap US companies with a record of raising their payouts, run by First Trust since 2017.

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

SDVY The Fund seeks to provide returns generally corresponding to the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq US Small Mid Cap Rising Dividend Achievers Index before fees and expenses. It normally invests at least 90% of net assets in securities included in that Index.

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

• SDVY Rising-dividend screening applied where it is uncommon. The heavyweights of this category (SCHD, VIG, DGRO) sit in large caps; SDVY runs the screen across US small and mid caps instead.
• Rules, not hunches. At least 90% of net assets stay in the Nasdaq US Small Mid Cap Rising Dividend Achievers Index, which selects on dividend growth alongside growth and quality traits.
• Spread thin on purpose: roughly 190 holdings, a multi-billion-dollar asset base, and heavy day-to-day trading volume for a small/mid cap strategy. Distributions come quarterly.

• 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

• SDVY Cost is the trade-off: 0.58% a year, above the dividend-screen median, and many times what the large-cap incumbents charge (SCHD 0.06%, VIG 0.04%).
• Smaller companies move harder in both directions, and this fund's ride has been rougher than that of large-cap dividend peers.
• It screens for dividends that are rising, not dividends that are large, so current income here generally runs below what high-yield-focused funds pay.

• 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 SDVY profile⁠

Full SPYD profile⁠