The ProShares S&P 500 Aristocrats ETF (NYSEArca: NOBL) is just 15 months old, but the fund has already made an impression on investors and ETF industry observers.
NOBL was named ETF Product of the Year at the William F. Sharpe Indexing Achievement Awards, presented at the annual IMN Global Indexing & ETFs conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to a statement issued by ProShares on Tuesday.
Awards are nice, but advisors’ and investors’ adoption of an ETF is a more important indicator of a newer fund’s long-term sustainability. NOBL has quickly cemented its status as one of the up-and-coming dividend ETFs, having grown to over $500 million in assets under management, according to the statement.
Putting NOBL’s asset growth into perspective, the ETF had just over $259 million in AUM at the end of the third quarter, according to issuer data.
NOBL tracks the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, which only includes companies that have increased their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years. In other words, a company that fails to boost its payout will eventually be excluded from NOBL. [A Noble Dividend ETF]
With NOBL’s scant utilities sector exposure (just 1.86% at the end of the third quarter), the ETF should continue acquiring new assets if interest rates rise this year.
What makes NOBL an alluring option among dividend ETFs is that even though the ETF is home to plenty of mature, old line companies, as evidenced by the 25-year dividend increase streak requirement, the ETF sports a yield of less than 2%. That implies ample room for dividend growth by the ETF’s roughly 50 holdings.