XLK allocates nearly 16.5% of its weight to Apple, or almost 640 basis points more than the ETF devotes to Microsoft. Although XLK has been hit hard by outflows this quarter, there are signs that situation is abating a bit as the ETF has raked in over $40 million this month.
Buoyed by the strength of older tech names, XLK has outperformed the S&P 500 by 470 basis points this year. Tech’s rise as a prominent dividend sector is encouraging investors to view the some of the sector’s large-cap names as more than just growth stocks.
The average payout increase from Apple, IBM (NYSE: IBM), Cisco (NasdaqGS: CSCO) and Qualcomm (NasdaqGS: QCOM) this year is almost 14%. Those stocks combine for 26.3% of XLK’s weight. [Tech Dividends Power These ETFs]
QQQ’s trailing 12-month yield of 1.31% may not sound like much, but that is about 40 basis points better than the yield on the NASDAQ-100 at the height of the tech bubble. Five QQQ’s top-10 holdings are dividend payers.
Powershares QQQ
Tom Lydon’s clients own share of Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Microsoft and QQQ.