“While these payments have been a boon to total returns, especially as stock prices have continued to rise, according to one company, dividends increases are expected to slow in 2019. IHS Markit, a London-based research firm, says that aggregate dividends among globally listed companies will rise by 6% this year, down from 14.3% in 2018 and 9% in 2017,” reports Money Sense.
EFAD is also delivering on its potential to outperform non-dividend EAFE strategies. As has been widely documented international stocks struggled last year and the MSCI EAFE Index is 15% overt the past year, a decline that is about 50% worse than EFAD’s over the same period. Ex-US developed markets are rebounding this year, but again, EFAD is outperforming the EAFE benchmark.
Japan, the U.K. and Australia combine for over 38% of EFAD’s geographic exposure.
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