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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?
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.
Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.
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.
Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Flexshares, and has been able to amass over $2.19 billion, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Blend. QDF 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
When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.39% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.51%.
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 Information Technology sector - about 37.1% of the portfolio. Financials and Industrials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Apple Inc Common Stock Usd 0.00001 (AAPL) accounts for about 8.13% of total assets, followed by Nvidia Corp Common Stock Usd 0.001 (NVDA) and Microsoft Corp Common Stock Usd 0.00000625 (MSFT).
QDF's top 10 holdings account for about 36.7% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added about 10.12% and it's up approximately 29.55% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/25/2026), respectively. QDF has traded between $69.13 and $88.79 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.92 and standard deviation of 13.86% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 126 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 Index Fund ETF Shares (VTI) tracks CRSP US Total Market Index. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF has $91.86 billion in assets, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares has $646.28 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?
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.
Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.
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.
Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Flexshares, and has been able to amass over $2.19 billion, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Style Box - All Cap Blend. QDF 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
When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.39% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.51%.
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 Information Technology sector - about 37.1% of the portfolio. Financials and Industrials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Apple Inc Common Stock Usd 0.00001 (AAPL) accounts for about 8.13% of total assets, followed by Nvidia Corp Common Stock Usd 0.001 (NVDA) and Microsoft Corp Common Stock Usd 0.00000625 (MSFT).
QDF's top 10 holdings account for about 36.7% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added about 10.12% and it's up approximately 29.55% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/25/2026), respectively. QDF has traded between $69.13 and $88.79 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.92 and standard deviation of 13.86% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 126 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 Index Fund ETF Shares (VTI) tracks CRSP US Total Market Index. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF has $91.86 billion in assets, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares has $646.28 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.