What You Should Know:
- Vanguard sponsors the fund.
- VYM has an expense ratio of 0.18%.
- The fund has 439 holdings, and the top ten components make up 34.5% of overall assets.
- Holdings are weighted based on market-cap.
- Sector allocations as of 12/31/2011: consumer discretionary 5.8%, consumer staples 19.8%, energy 13.5%, financials 9.5%, health care 12.6%, industrials 12%, information technology 8.5%, materials 3.9%, telecom services 5.6% and utilities 8.8%.
- VYM has a 30-day SEC yield of 3.28%.
- The fund is up 1.9% in the last month, up 4.4% over the past three months and up 2.3% year-to-date.
- The ETF is also 5.0% above its 200-day exponential moving average.
The Latest News:
- With the Federal Reserve pledging to hold onto near-zero rates for at least two more years, Goldman Sachs advises investors to look for companies that pay dividends, according to The Economic Times.
- Corporate America is sitting on record levels of cash, with S&P 500 components holding almost $1 trillion, reports Herbert Lash for Reuters.
- High dividend-paying stocks have been particularly rewarded for their cash hoarding tendencies.
- “If you used your balance sheet to try to grow revenues you got penalized last year. But if you paid it out in dividends the market rewarded your company,” Robert Turner, chairman and chief investment officer at Turner Investment Partners, said in the Reuters article.
Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index ETF
For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.