SPDV vs VIG

SPDVBAAM S&P 500 High Dividend Value ETF

VIGAVanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF

In short

SPDV Most high-dividend screens end up a pile of utilities and financials. SPDV takes the five best dividend-plus-free-cash-flow names in every S&P 500 sector, equal-weights them, and pays out monthly.

VIG VIG buys dividend growth, not fat yields: about 300 US companies with a record of raising their payouts, tracked for 0.04% a year. Running since 2006 and now north of $100 billion, it is the plain-vanilla anchor of the dividend-screen aisle.

Stated mandate

SPDV The Fund passively tracks the S&P 500 Dividend and Free Cash Flow Yield Index. Its rules-based, equal-weighted approach targets S&P 500 constituents with high dividend yields and sustainable dividend distributions while maintaining diversified sector exposure.

VIG The fund seeks to track the S&P U.S. Dividend Growers Index, which represents common stocks of companies with a record of increasing dividends over time.

Why people hold it

• SPDV Yield alone can flag a payout about to be cut. This index ranks S&P 500 names on dividend yield times free-cash-flow yield, so the dividend has to be backed by cash the business actually generates.sec.gov
• Top five scorers per GICS sector, equal-weighted, reset each January and July. No single sector or mega-cap gets to run the portfolio.sec.gov
• 0.29% a year, below the median fee among dividend-screen funds, and distributions land monthly rather than quarterly.
• No manager discretion to drift: a rules-based portfolio of roughly 50 stocks that has hewed closely to its stated index.

• VIG At 0.04% a year, the fee is roughly a tenth of the typical dividend-screen fund's 0.39%, and undercuts every other top-graded fund in the group, DGRO and SCHD included.
• The screen rewards a record of increasing dividends rather than the biggest current payout, so the basket leans on payout discipline instead of stretched yields.
• Live since 2006, over $100 billion in assets and actively traded, which shows up as easy fills rather than wide spreads.
• About 300 holdings, cash paid quarterly, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its dividend-screen peer group.

Worth knowing

• SPDV A smaller, thinly traded fund. Limit orders matter more here than with the category's household names.
• The index giants in this corner (SCHD, SPYD, VIG) charge under a tenth of a percent, so SPDV's fee buys the sector-balanced cash-flow screen, not the cheapest beta.
• Sector balance cuts both ways: when one high-yield corner is hot, SPDV still holds only five names in it, and the semi-annual reset can churn holdings.sec.gov

• VIG Growth of payouts, not maximum income, is the mandate. That puts it on a different axis than high-dividend funds such as SPYD.
• US stocks only, no bonds and no overseas payers, and sector weights are whatever the index screen spits out.
• Portfolio risk and concentration measures land mid-pack for the category: it is fully invested in equities and drops when the market drops.

Full SPDV profile⁠

Full VIG profile⁠