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Is ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Launched on 10/09/2013, the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL - Free Report) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Value 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.

This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

Because the fund has amassed over $11.46 billion, this makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Value. NOBL is managed by Proshares. NOBL seeks to match the performance of the S&P 500 DividendAristocrats Index before fees and expenses.

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index targets companies that are currently members of the S&P 500, have increased dividend payments each year for at least 25 years & meet certain market capitalization & liquidity requirements.

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 NOBL are 0.35%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.15%.

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.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Staples sector - about 23.50% of the portfolio. Industrials and Financials round out the top three.

Taking into account individual holdings, Consolidated Edison Inc (ED - Free Report) accounts for about 1.74% of the fund's total assets, followed by Abbvie Inc (ABBV - Free Report) and Brown & Brown Inc (BRO - Free Report) .

NOBL's top 10 holdings account for about 14.94% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -0.46% so far this year and it's up approximately 2.22% in the last one year (as of 05/09/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $90.85 and $108.47.

The ETF has a beta of 0.87 and standard deviation of 15.09% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 70 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats 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.

IShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (DGRO - Free Report) tracks Morningstar US Dividend Growth Index and the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG - Free Report) tracks NASDAQ US Dividend Achievers Select Index. IShares Core Dividend Growth ETF has $30.36 billion in assets, Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF has $87.41 billion. DGRO has an expense ratio of 0.08% and VIG charges 0.05%.

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

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.

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