Is SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF (WDIV) a Strong ETF Right Now?

The SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF (WDIV) made its debut on 05/29/2013, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Global Large-Cap Value Equity ETF 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.

A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer 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.

By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.

The smart beta space gives investors many different choices, from equal-weighting, one of the simplest strategies, to more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting. However, not all of these methodologies have been able to deliver remarkable returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by State Street Global Advisors, and has been able to amass over $223.64 million, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Global Large-Cap Value Equity ETF. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats Index.

The S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats Index measures the performance of high dividend-yield companies included in the S&P Global BMI that have followed a managed-dividends policy of increasing or stable dividends for at least ten consecutive years.

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 this ETF are 0.40%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 4.18%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Looking at individual holdings, Cspc Pharmaceutical Group Lt accounts for about 2.2% of total assets, followed by Apa Group (APA) and Telus Corp (T).

The top 10 holdings account for about 16.48% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added roughly 17.81% so far this year and was up about 24.61% in the last one year (as of 07/07/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $59.49 and $71.45

WDIV has a beta of 0.63 and standard deviation of 13.32% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a low risk choice in the space. With about 125 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Global Large-Cap Value Equity ETF segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

SPDR Global Dow ETF (DGT) tracks Global Dow Index and the Pacer Global Cash Cows Dividend ETF (GCOW) tracks Pacer Global Cash Cows Dividend Index. SPDR Global Dow ETF has $400.5 million in assets, Pacer Global Cash Cows Dividend ETF has $2.36 billion. DGT has an expense ratio of 0.50% and GCOW changes 0.60%.

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

Bottom Line

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

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