Advertisement

Is SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (EDIV) a Strong ETF Right Now?

Making its debut on 02/23/2011, smart beta exchange traded fund SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (EDIV) provides investors broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

Market cap weighted indexes work great for investors who believe in market efficiency. They provide a low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns.

If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.

Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by State Street Global Advisors. EDIV has been able to amass assets over $312.23 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. EDIV seeks to match the performance of the S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index before fees and expenses.

This Index generally includes 100 tradable, exchange-listed common stocks from emerging market countries that offer high dividend yields. Additionally, stocks must have positive 3-year earnings growth and profitability. Stocks are weighted by annual dividend yield. To ensure diverse exposure, no single country or sector has more than a 25% weight and no single stock has more than a 3% weight.

Cost & Other Expenses

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for EDIV are 0.49%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

EDIV's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 3.35%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Taking into account individual holdings, Formosa Plastics Corporation (1301-TW) accounts for about 3.35% of the fund's total assets, followed by Fomento Economico Mexicano Sab De Cv Sponsored Adr Class B (FMX) and Lenovo Group Limited (992-HK).

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 27.48% of EDIV's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 5.23% so far this year and was up about 5.04% in the last one year (as of 03/05/2021). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $19.98 and $29.63.

The fund has a beta of 0.82 and standard deviation of 22.91% for the trailing three-year period, which makes EDIV a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 128 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Broad Emerging Market ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has $75.07 billion in assets, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $75.93 billion. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.10% and IEMG charges 0.11%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Broad Emerging Market ETFs.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.


Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. (FMX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO): ETF Research Reports
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.