Over the past 40 years, companies that boost payouts have proven to be less volatile than their counterparts that cut, suspended or did not initiate or raise dividends.
SDOG has an international counterpart, the ALPS International Sector Dividend Dogs ETF (NYSEArca: IDOG). For dividend investors looking for mostly developed market ex-U.S. exposure, IDOG merits consideration. ALPS identifies the five highest-yielding securities in the 10 GICS sectors on the last trading day of November. From there, IDOG is rebalanced quarterly in an effort to keep sector weights in the area of 10% and individual holdings at around 2%.
SDOG, which turns five years old later this month, has over $2.2 billion in assets under management. The ETF charges 0.4% per year, or $40 on a $10,000 stake.
For more on Smart Beta ETFs, visit the Smart Beta Channel home page.