5 Dividend ETF Winners of 2025 That Breezed Past the S&P 500

Wall Street finished 2025 on an upbeat note. The S&P 500 finished the year with 16.39% gains, marking its third successive year of double-digit gains. The Nasdaq Composite surged 20.36%, thanks to sustained enthusiasm around artificial intelligence (AI), while the Dow advanced 12.97% in 2025, weighed somewhat by its limited exposure to technology stocks, as mentioned on CNBC.

Markets Rebound From Tariff-Led Turmoil

The strong year-end performance marks a notable recovery from the sharp sell-off seen early in 2025.To start 2025, markets were hit by the rise of low-cost AI initiatives from China and their adverse impact on the U.S. Big Tech, Trump tariffs announced in April, sticky inflation and persistently high interest rates. Stabilization in the market returned in the month of May after a tariff-led, turbulent April.

In April 2025, the S&P 500 had fallen nearly 19% from its February peak and briefly slipped below the 5,000-mark for the first time since April 2024, avoiding bear-market territory by a slight margin.

Market euphoria started to solidify from midyear, thanks to easing trade tensions. There were three Fed rate cuts this year, with the action starting in September. That momentum faded suddenly when the longest U.S. government shutdown brought the fourth-quarter economic progress to a halt, and overvaluation concerns intensified in the AI space.

Santa Rally Fails to Materialize?

The late-year pullback raised some concern, as the final five trading days of the year and the first two of the next typically form a seasonally strong period known as the “Santa Claus” rally. Instead of a solid and consistent year-end boost, the final sessions of 2025 were marked by profit-taking, hinting at lingering caution among investors, mainly due to AI overvaluation and payoff-related worries. The Nasdaq lost 1.3% over the past week, the S&P 500 retreated 0.9% and the Dow Jones fell 0.7%.

Navigating Volatile Markets With Dividend ETFs

In such a volatile market, dividend ETFs normally come to the rescue. The hunt for dividends in the equity market is always on, irrespective of how it is behaving. If investors are mired in a web of equity market uncertainty, global growth worries and geopolitical crises, the lure of dividend investing increases further.

Investors should note that not all dividend stocks serve the same purpose. While high-yield ones are known for offering hefty current income, stocks with dividend growth point to quality investing, a prerequisite for making money in this volatile environment.

Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few of the dividend ETFs that have topped the S&P 500 (up 16.4% in 2025) so far this year (as of Dec. 31, 2025). International dividend ETFs showed strength this time around. We have selected the winners from a wide range of ETF issuers.

Winning Dividend ETFs in Focus

First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend ETF FDD – Up 56.1%

The underlying STOXX Europe Select Dividend 30 Index consists of 30 high dividend-yielding securities selected from the STOXX Europe 600 Index. It charges 59 bps in fees and yields 3.99% annually.

iShares International Select Dividend ETF IDV – Up 44.2%

The underlying Dow Jones EPAC Select Dividend Index measures the performance of a select group of equity securities issued by companies that have provided relatively high dividend yields on a consistent basis over time. It charges 50 bps in fees and yields 4.94% annually.

WisdomTree International High Dividend ETF DTH – Up 37.3%

The underlying WisdomTree International High Dividend Index is a fundamentally weighted index that measures the performance of companies with high dividend yields selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index. It charges 58 bps in fees and yields 3.80% annually.

First Trust Dow Jones Global Select Dividend ETF FGD – Up 36%

The underlying Dow Jones Global Select Dividend Index is an indicated annual dividend yield-weighted index of 100 stocks selected from the developed-market portion of the Dow Jones World Index. It charges 56 bps in fees and yields 5.62% annually.

SPDR S&P International Dividend ETF DWX – Up 26.1%

The underlying S&P International Dividend Opportunities Index measures the performance of the 100 highest dividend-yielding common stocks and ADRs listed on primary exchanges of countries included in the S&P Global BMI ex-U.S. It charges 45 bps in fees and yields 4.44% annually.

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