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Is FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF (QDF) a Strong ETF Right Now?
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Making its debut on 12/14/2012, smart beta exchange traded fund FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF (QDF - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - All Cap Blend category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.
However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.
Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.
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
Because the fund has amassed over $1.96 billion, this makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Blend. QDF is managed by Flexshares. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Northern Trust Quality Dividend Index before fees and expenses.
The Northern Trust Quality Dividend Index is designed to provide exposure to a high-quality income-oriented portfolio of long-only U.S. equity securities, with an emphasis on long-term capital growth and a targeted overall beta that is similar to that of the Northern Trust 1250 Index and the Index are selected based on expected dividend payment and fundamental factors.
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.
With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.37%.
QDF's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 1.74%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 33.1% of the portfolio. Financials and Industrials round out the top three.
When you look at individual holdings, Apple Inc Common Stock Usd 0.00001 (AAPL) accounts for about 7.63% of the fund's total assets, followed by Nvidia Corp Common Stock Usd 0.001 (NVDA) and Microsoft Corp Common Stock Usd 0.00000625 (MSFT).
The top 10 holdings account for about 39.72% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF return is roughly 12.09% and is up roughly 13.63% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 09/17/2025), respectively. QDF has traded between $59.99 and $78.78 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.93 and standard deviation of 15.46% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 139 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - All Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT) tracks S&P Total Market Index and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) tracks CRSP US Total Market Index. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF has $76.85 billion in assets, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has $539.94 billion. ITOT has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VTI changes 0.03%.
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 - All Cap Blend
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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Is FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF (QDF) a Strong ETF Right Now?
Making its debut on 12/14/2012, smart beta exchange traded fund FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF (QDF - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - All Cap Blend category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.
However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.
Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.
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
Because the fund has amassed over $1.96 billion, this makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Blend. QDF is managed by Flexshares. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the Northern Trust Quality Dividend Index before fees and expenses.
The Northern Trust Quality Dividend Index is designed to provide exposure to a high-quality income-oriented portfolio of long-only U.S. equity securities, with an emphasis on long-term capital growth and a targeted overall beta that is similar to that of the Northern Trust 1250 Index and the Index are selected based on expected dividend payment and fundamental factors.
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.
With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.37%.
QDF's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 1.74%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector - about 33.1% of the portfolio. Financials and Industrials round out the top three.
When you look at individual holdings, Apple Inc Common Stock Usd 0.00001 (AAPL) accounts for about 7.63% of the fund's total assets, followed by Nvidia Corp Common Stock Usd 0.001 (NVDA) and Microsoft Corp Common Stock Usd 0.00000625 (MSFT).
The top 10 holdings account for about 39.72% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF return is roughly 12.09% and is up roughly 13.63% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 09/17/2025), respectively. QDF has traded between $59.99 and $78.78 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.93 and standard deviation of 15.46% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 139 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - All Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT) tracks S&P Total Market Index and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) tracks CRSP US Total Market Index. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF has $76.85 billion in assets, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has $539.94 billion. ITOT has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VTI changes 0.03%.
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 - All Cap Blend
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.