WisdomTree, an exchange-traded fund sponsor and asset manager, has launched the WisdomTree US SmallCap Dividend Growth Fund (DGRS) on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
DGRS is designed to provide exposure to small-cap dividend-paying stocks with growth characteristics and has an expense ratio of 0.38 per cent.
Jeremy Schwartz, WisdomTree director of research, says: “WisdomTree’s family of dividend growth ETFs offer a unique, forward-looking dividend growth methodology. A number of dividend growth indexes focus on backward-looking dividend-screening criteria that we believe exclude many dividend initiators and fast-growers that are often found in the small-cap arena. DGRS is the first, and only, strategy focusing on the US market’s small-cap dividend growth leaders, a segment we believe offers some of the most attractive dividend growth opportunities.
“Many assume that high quality, dividend growth opportunities are confined to blue chip, large-cap stocks. But in an environment where the US economy is improving and interest rates are beginning to rise, small caps, more closely tied to the US economy, will likely become more attractive than large caps, which are more globally sensitive.”
The fund seeks to offer:
— A diversified basket of small-cap dividend-paying securities with growth characteristics
— Differentiated exposure from traditional dividend funds
— Greater exposure to cyclical sectors leveraged to an improving US economy versus more defensive sectors
— At annual index rebalance, single stock cap of two per cent, sector cap of 25 per cent
DGRS is WisdomTree’s third dividend growth ETF, following the WisdomTree US Dividend Growth Fund (DGRW) and the WisdomTree Global ex-US Growth Fund (DNL).
