This year is proving to be another strong year on the global dividend growth front.
“Global dividends jumped 12.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter to $497.4 billion, hitting a new record, according to a report on the Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index,” reports CNBC.
Importantly for income investors, payouts are growing outside the U.S., a scenario presenting opportunity with exchange traded funds such as the Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE High Dividend Yield Hedged Equity ETF (NYSEArca: HDEF).
“Payments rose in almost every region of the world in headline terms and records were broken in 12 countries including France, Japan, and the U.S. This comes amid warnings from analysts that the looming trade war and punitive tariffs from the U.S. and China could pose a risk for equities across the globe,” according to CNBC.
HDEF tracks high dividend-yielding developed market stocks across Europe, Australasia and the Far East, and it hedges the currency risks as well.
Inside ‘HDEF’ ETF
HDEF’s underlying index looks for companies with dividend yields greater than or equal to 1.3 times the yield of the parent index and screen for quality, including return on equity, earnings variability and debt-to-equity.
“Underlying growth was 7.5 percent, once the strength of European currencies compared to the second quarter last year was accounted for. France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Ireland all broke new records,” according to CNBC.
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European countries represent almost 78% of HDEF’s weight, led by the U.K., Germany and France. Germany and France are the Eurozone’s two largest economies.
“The strong dividend growth around the world prompted Janus Henderson to increase its forecast for 2018 underlying dividend increases from 6.0 percent to 7.4 percent,” according to CNBC.
HDEF has a trailing 12-month dividend yield of 2.21%.
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