“As equity markets and interest rates forged higher last year, investors repositioned out of defensive higher-yielding equities and into higher beta stocks to try to capture the upside return potential. With interest rates falling year-to-date and the broad equity markets mostly sideways, investors have become more constructive on the importance of dividend income,” Zimmerman said in the note.
The WisdomTree Equity Income Index, the underlying index for DHS, has a dividend yield of 3.61%, according to WisdomTree data, and a P/E of 16.85, slightly below the S&P 500.
DHS chages 0.38% per year and pays a monthly dividend. Since the March 2009 market bottom, DHS has handily outperformed each of the four largest U.S. dividend ETFs, gaining 273%.
WisdomTree Equity Income Fund
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of SPY.