The ProShares S&P 500 Aristocrats ETF (NYSEArca: NOBL) has rapidly topped an important assets under management mark, gaining over $100 million in assets in rapid fashion. NOBL debuted in early October 2013.
Maryland-based ProShares is the largest issuer of inverse and leveraged ETFs, but the bulk of the firm’s recent launches, including NOBL, have been traditional ETFs. [ProShares Introduces Short-Duration EM Bond ETF]
NOBL tracks the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, which only includes companies that have increased their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years. “It currently contains 54 companies diversified across the consumer staples, industrials, materials, health care, financials and consumer discretionary sectors. The companies in the index are equal-weighted, rather than weighted by market capitalization. It is reconstituted annually in January and rebalanced in April, July and October,” said ProShares in a statement.
Familiar names in NOBL’s lineup include Dow components 3M (NYSE: MMM), Coca-Cola (NYSE : KO), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).
“NOBL’s rapid success reflects an increasing recognition of the attractiveness of companies with the strongest track records of dividend growth,” said Michael Sapir, Chairman and CEO of ProShare Advisors LLC, ProShares’ investment advisor, in the statement. “NOBL’s underlying index, which contains those S&P 500 companies that have grown their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years, has not only outperformed the S&P 500, but has done so with lower volatility.”