DXPS allocates almost 14% of its weight to Shell and BP. The WisdomTree offering also features a 6% weight to Vodafone (NasdaqGS: VOD), one of the world’s largest dividend payers. HSBC, another one of the largest dividend payers in the world, is a top 10 holding in DXPS and DBUK’s largest holding at a weight of almost 6.6%.
While it is worth noting that since 2009, British firms have paid $676 billion in dividends, the strong dollar is giving British income investors an advantage of their American counterparts, underscoring the utility of currency hedged ETFs like DBUK and DXPS. [The Case for U.K. Dividends]
“An investor holding £1,000 worth of shares in each of the companies in the FTSE 350 that pays their dividend in dollars would have been 8.3 per cent, or the best part of £125 better off last year purely as a result of the currency,” reports Ruth Sunderland for the Daily Mail.
There are plenty of marquee U.K. firms that deliver dividends in dollars. In 2014, 36% of FTSE 100 dividends were paid in dollars, according to the Daily Mail.
BP, HSBC and Shell pay their dividends in dollars. Also notable are DBUK’s and DXPS’s health care sector allocations. AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), which yield an average of 5.6%, are top 10 holdings in both ETFs.
Deutsche X-Trackers MSCI United Kingdom Hedged Equity ETF
