IRY’s combined 38.6% weight to Swiss and British stocks is favorable for another reason: Dividend growth. Estimates indicate that in 2014, the 20 largest firms listed on Switzerland’s benchmark Swiss Market Index paid a record $37.2 billion in dividends. Last year, U.K. dividends surged 31% to $135 billion, according to Henderson Global Investors.
Slowly, but surely, investors are starting to notice IRY. The ETF has nearly $74 million in assets under management, about 20% more than it did a year ago.
IRY holds 127 stocks, just under a third of the amount found in the eveloped Ex-U.S. BMI Health Care Sector Index, the ETF’s underlying index. However, the ETF has rarely deviated from that index in significant fashion, according to State Street data.
SPDR S&P International Health Care Sector ETF