SHRY vs VYM

SHRYDFirst Trust Bloomberg Shareholder Yield ETF

VYMAVanguard High Dividend Yield ETF

In short

SHRY SHRY tracks Bloomberg's Shareholder Yield Index: about 50 US stocks, rules-based, paid out quarterly. A concentrated take on the cash-back-to-owners theme, priced at 0.60% in an aisle stocked with cheaper options.

VYM The no-frills dividend workhorse. VYM buys the higher-yielding end of the US market, roughly 600 names, for four basis points: no quality screen, no dividend-growth-streak test, just yield, at scale since 2006.

Stated mandate

SHRY The Fund seeks to track the price and yield of the Bloomberg Shareholder Yield Index before fees and expenses. It normally invests at least 80% of net assets in securities comprising that Index.

VYM The Fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of common stocks from companies characterized by high dividend yields.

Why people hold it

• SHRY Concentrated by design: about 50 US names drawn from the Bloomberg Shareholder Yield Index, not a 500-stock blend where a single good idea gets diluted to a rounding error.
• Rules-based and legible: a 1940 Act ETF that normally keeps at least 80% of net assets in its named index's securities. The recipe is published, not improvised.
• Cash arrives on a schedule (quarterly), and the fund has been live since 2017, so there are years of real-world results to inspect instead of a backtest.

• VYM Four basis points a year, against a peer-group median near 0.32%. Cheaper than cohort neighbors VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%).
• Running since 2006 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so ordinary orders tend to fill at tight spreads.
• Simple mandate: track the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index of US common stocks screened on yield. No manager discretion, no options overlay, plain 1940-Act fund.vanguard.com
• Pays quarterly, and among 100-plus value and multifactor rivals it stands as one of the strongest overall packages in the group.

Worth knowing

• SHRY Cost is the headwind: 0.60% a year against a 0.32% median for its multifactor peer group, with cohort anchors like VYM (0.04%) and FNDX (0.25%) sitting far below.
• A small asset base and light trading volume tend to mean wider bid-ask spreads, so more of the cost shows up in the trade itself.
• With roughly 50 holdings, individual names and sector tilts carry real weight, and results can drift from a broad US index in either direction.

• VYM The screen is yield, not payout growth or dividend quality, so a company can qualify simply because its share price fell.
• This is a value slice by design, tilted to established payers, so it behaves differently from a total US market fund.
• Roughly 600 holdings, but weight leans toward the largest payers, so the top of the roster does more of the work than the count suggests.

Full SHRY profile⁠

Full VYM profile⁠