Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is iShares Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (DVYE) a Strong ETF Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

Making its debut on 02/23/2012, smart beta exchange traded fund iShares Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (DVYE - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market ETFs category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.

Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.

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.

Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.

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

Managed by Blackrock, DVYE has amassed assets over $665.90 million, making it one of the larger ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select Dividend Index before fees and expenses.

The Dow Jones Emerging Markets Select Dividend Index measures the performance of the companies in emerging market countries that have provided relatively high dividend yields on a consistent basis over time.

Cost & Other Expenses

For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.49% for DVYE, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

DVYE's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 9.31%.

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, Rec (RECLTD) accounts for about 3.60% of the fund's total assets, followed by Petroleo Brasileiro Pref Sa (PETR4) and Companhia De Saneamento De Minas G (CSMG3).

The top 10 holdings account for about 21.18% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -2.76% so far this year and was up about 10.64% in the last one year (as of 02/06/2024). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $22.96 and $26.65.

DVYE has a beta of 0.82 and standard deviation of 17.28% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 131 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

IShares 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 - Free Report) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG - Free Report) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has $72.03 billion in assets, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $72.15 billion. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.08% and IEMG charges 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

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

Published in