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.

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.

Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $878.48 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index.

The S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index includes 100 tradable, exchange-listed common stocks from emerging market countries that offer high dividend yields.

Cost & Other Expenses

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.49% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 4.51%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk, but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Looking at individual holdings, Ptt Pcl Nvdr (PTT) accounts for about 3.98% of total assets, followed by Ambev Sa (ABEV3) and Banco Do Brasil S.a. (BBAS3).

EDIV's top 10 holdings account for about 27.02% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added roughly 14.51% so far this year and is up about 6.75% in the last one year (as of 09/30/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $32.61 and $39.81

The fund has a beta of 0.53 and standard deviation of 13.60% for the trailing three-year period, which makes EDIV a medium risk choice in this particular space. With about 138 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 $101.04 billion in assets, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $109.75 billion. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.07% and IEMG changes 0.09%.

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

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

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