ETF Evaluator: State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF (SDY) Follow This ETF

State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF Overview

State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF (SDY) is a passively managed U.S. Equity Mid-Cap Value exchange-traded fund (ETF). State Street Investment Management launched the ETF in 2005.

The investment seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index. The fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the index. The index is designed to measure the performance of the highest dividend yielding S&P Composite 1500® Index constituents that have followed a managed-dividends policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 20 consecutive years.

About State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF (SDY)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 10.58 years: Emiliano Rabinovich (2017) and Karl Schneider (2014). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100% and S&P High Yield Dividend Aristcrts TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF has 158 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 17.0% of the ETF’s assets. The ETF meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The ETF is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity ETF group. State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF has 1.4% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 98.4% There is 1.4% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF has 0.2% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $21 billion in total assets, which is above the $2 billion average for the Mid-Cap Value category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

SDY Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Mid-Cap Value category. State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF has an expense ratio of 0.35%, which is 24% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 26%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 73% for the Mid-Cap Value category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF returned 2.6%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Mid-Cap Value category had an average return of 1.7%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all ETFs in that category.

State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF has a trailing yield of 2.45%, which is above the 2.13% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

State Street® SPDR® S&P® Dividend ETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 10.8%, 0.7 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 15.0% over the past year (grade of D), 10.3% over the past three years (grade of F) and 7.3% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 9.4% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

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