“According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, 971 dividend increases were reported during the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the 885 increases which were reported during the fourth quarter of 2013. For all of 2014, 3308 issues increased their payments, up 14.3% from the 2895 issues that increased their payments during 2013,” said S&P in a note earlier this month.
The Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEArca: SCHD) is now home to $2.7 billion in assets under management, up from $2.1 billion in early October. SCHD tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, which not only features some of the largest U.S. dividend payers, but also only those companies with at least 10 years of increased payouts. [Quality Fuels This Dividend ETF]
In September, Schwab unveiled a massive expansion of its Schwab ETF OneSource commission-free ETF platform by adding 65 new ETFs and seven new issuers.
New providers joining OneSource are ALPS, Direxion Investments, Global X Funds, IndexIQ, PIMCO, ProShares and WisdomTree (NasdaqGS: WETF). Those firms join OneSource’s original members State Street (NYSE: STT), Guggenheim, Invesco’s (NYSE: IVZ) PowerShares, ETF Securities, U.S. Commodity Funds and Schwab’s own lineup of ETFs. [Schwab Bolsters Commission-Free ETF Lineup]
Charts Courtesy: Charles Schwab
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of SCHD.