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Is SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF (WDIV) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the World ETFs category of the market, the SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF (WDIV - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 05/29/2013.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.

Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by State Street Global Advisors. WDIV has been able to amass assets over $252.60 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the World ETFs. WDIV seeks to match the performance of the S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats Index measures the performance of high dividend-yield companies included in the S&P Global BMI that have followed a managed-dividends policy of increasing or stable dividends for at least ten consecutive years.

Cost & Other Expenses

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.40%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 5.18%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Taking into account individual holdings, Enagas Sa (ENG-ES) accounts for about 1.64% of the fund's total assets, followed by At&t Inc. (T - Free Report) and Keyera Corp. (KEY-CA).

WDIV's top 10 holdings account for about 14.71% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

Year-to-date, the SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF has lost about -5.70% so far, and is down about -6.21% over the last 12 months (as of 06/27/2022). WDIV has traded between $60.54 and $69.09 in this past 52-week period.

The fund has a beta of 0.84 and standard deviation of 20.98% for the trailing three-year period, which makes WDIV a low risk choice in this particular space. With about 119 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the World ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

IShares MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWI - Free Report) tracks MSCI All Country World Index and the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT - Free Report) tracks FTSE Global All Cap Index. IShares MSCI ACWI ETF has $17.21 billion in assets, Vanguard Total World Stock ETF has $22.49 billion. ACWI has an expense ratio of 0.32% and VT charges 0.07%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the World ETFs.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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