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

Making its debut on 06/16/2006, smart beta exchange traded fund WisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend ETF (DTD) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Value category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.

Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

DTD is managed by Wisdomtree, and this fund has amassed over $1.44 billion, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Value. Before fees and expenses, DTD 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

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.

Annual operating expenses for DTD are 0.28%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.98%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

When you look at individual holdings, Dreyfus Trsy Oblig Cash Mgmt Cl Insaccounts for about 59.87% of the fund's total assets, followed by Us Dollar and Microsoft Corp (MSFT).

DTD's top 10 holdings account for about 122.09% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, DTD has added roughly 11.14%, and it's up approximately 11.28% in the last one year (as of 11/05/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $68.45 and $84.87.

DTD has a beta of 0.83 and standard deviation of 12.74% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 838 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 $68.41 billion in assets, Vanguard Value ETF has $147.59 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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