Established rivals to IDV include the PowerShares International Dividend Achievers Portfolio (NYSEArca: PID) and SPDR S&P International Dividend ETF (NYSEArca: DWX). Additionally, rival options include the FlexShares International Quality Dividend Index Fund (NYSEArca: IQDF), Market Vectors MSCI International Quality Dividend ETF (NYSEArca: QDXU) and ProShares MSCI EAFE Dividend Growers ETF (NYSEArca: EFAD).
PID only includes companies that have continually increased dividends, and holdings are weighted by dividend yields. The combination of listing requirements and dividend growth means that the majority of components are from developed countries, like the U.K. and Canada.
DWX follows its own liquidity, profitability and dividend growth criteria. The index also weights components by dividend yield. Unlike the previous two offerings, DWX also includes emerging markets.
IDV “is overweight on Financial Services, Utilities, Energy and Communications services, which are the sectors that traditionally have a higher dividend payout. Despite the lack of constraints, IDV has a respectable sector exposure with only two of them being significantly underweight – Real Estate and technology. This is explained by the fact that the foreign real estate companies have not reached the maturity level of the US large cap REITs,” notes Seeking Alpha.
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