Although 2014 has been another good year in terms of dividend increases (nearly 30 companies boosted payouts just last week), exchange traded funds with a dividend tilt have not been immune to the market’s disappointing start to 2014.
Investors pulled almost $10 billion from equity-based ETFs last month, but they were just getting started as $22 billion was yanked from ETFs holding stocks last week. Some dividend ETFs have been bit by the outflow bug. [Utilities Buoy Some Dividend ETFs]
Others have not, including the WisdomTree Global Equity Income Fund (NYSEArca: DEW). DEW has actually brought in almost $2.4 million since the start of the year. That may not sound like much, but when $22 billion is pulled from equity ETFs in a single week, DEW’s asset-gathering acumen looks impressive.
The disclaimer with DEW is that of the 38 countries represented in its lineup, 15 are emerging markets. However, that group accounts for just about 17% of the fund’s weight. The U.S. is DEW’s top-country weight at almost 17%, but despite U.S. and emerging markets equities combining for over a third of DEW’s weight, the ETF is down just 2% this year, a performance that is less bad than some of the most popular U.S. dividend ETFs.
Europe has play a part in DEW’s relative sturdiness and while investors have been eager to pull capital from U.S. and emerging markets ETFs, some of that cash is flowing to Europe-focused funds. “The bright spots for flows in January were in non-US Developed Markets Equity, which gathered $11.2bn as a number of key themes from 2013 continued into the new year,” said BlackRock. “Pan-European Equity brought in $4.0bn aided by the most encouraging January Euro Zone PMI reading since 2011.” [Where Some of That Lost EM Money is Flowing]
Fifteen of the countries found in DEW are classified as developed Europe nations, led by a combined 27.5% allocation to the U.K., France and Germany. U.K.-based firms have been among the better non-U.S. dividend growers in recent years. [The Value of U.K. Dividends]