Making its debut on 06/16/2006, smart beta exchange traded fund WisdomTree U.S. High Dividend ETF (DHS Quick QuoteDHS - Free Report) provides investors 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.

These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of 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

Because the fund has amassed over $1.32 billion, this makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Value. DHS is managed by Wisdomtree. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the WisdomTree U.S. High Dividend Index.

The WisdomTree U.S. High Dividend Index is a fundamentally weighted index that measures the performance of companies with high dividend yields selected from the WisdomTree Dividend Index.

Cost & Other Expenses

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.38% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.

DHS's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 3.27%.

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.

When you look at individual holdings, Us Dollaraccounts for about 66.19% of the fund's total assets, followed by Dreyfus Trsy Oblig Cash Mgmt Cl Ins and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

The top 10 holdings account for about 136.41% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, DHS has added about 1.49%, and it's up approximately 14.6% in the last one year (as of 01/07/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $87.71 and $103.34.

The ETF has a beta of 0.65 and standard deviation of 13.14% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 365 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .

Alternatives

WisdomTree U.S. High Dividend 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.

Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index and the Vanguard Value ETF (VTV) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Value Index. Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF has $73.51 billion in assets, Vanguard Value ETF has $160.49 billion. SCHD has an expense ratio of 0.06% and VTV changes 0.04%.

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.