ALPS, a DST Company focused on asset servicing and asset gathering, has launched the ALPS International Sector Dividend Dogs ETF (IDOG).
The new exchange-traded fund, an ALPS Advisors solution, was designed to track the overall performance of the S-Network International Sector Dividend Dogs Index (IDOGX), a float-adjusted, capitalisation-weighted benchmark index of large-cap stocks domiciled in developed markets outside the Americas.
The fund launched on the one-year anniversary of the ALPS Sector Dividend Dog ETF (SDOG), a similarly-managed fund that applies the Dogs of the Dow Theory on a sector-by-sector basis using the S&P 500 as its starting universe of eligible securities. The ALPS Sector Dividend Dog ETF has attracted more than USD250m in assets in its first twelve months.
“An international equity-income ETF is a particularly exciting addition right now to our suite of portfolio solutions,” says Mike Akins, portfolio manager and senior vice president of ALPS. “I believe this new fund has a number of attractive factors that differentiate it from other international ETFs, not least of which is diversification.”
In practice, the S-Network International Sector Dividend Dogs Index selects the five stocks offering the highest dividend yields in each of the ten sectors comprising its benchmark. This strategy provides the ALPS International Sector Dividend Dogs ETF with several potential benefits, including:
• Dividend yield
• Sector and stock diversification and
• Alpha potential
