Is WisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend ETF (DTD) a Strong ETF Right Now?

Launched on 06/16/2006, the WisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend ETF (DTD) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Value 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.

However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

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

Because the fund has amassed over $1.44 billion, this makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Value. DTD is managed by Wisdomtree. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the WisdomTree U.S. Dividend Index.

The WisdomTree U.S. Dividend Index is a fundamentally-weighted index that defines the dividend-paying portion of the U.S. equity market.

Cost & Other Expenses

Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.28% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.93%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Looking at individual holdings, Us Dollar accounts for about 54.16% of total assets, followed by Dreyfus Trsy Oblig Cash Mgmt Cl Ins and Microsoft Corp (MSFT).

DTD's top 10 holdings account for about 121.67% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 10.54% so far this year and is up about 12.69% in the last one year (as of 09/01/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $68.45 and $83.02

The ETF has a beta of 0.83 and standard deviation of 13.74% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 842 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

WisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Value segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index and the Vanguard Value ETF (VTV) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Value Index. Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF has $72.51 billion in assets, Vanguard Value ETF has $143.81 billion. SCHD has an expense ratio of 0.06% and VTV changes 0.04%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Value

Bottom Line

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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