Launched on 02/23/2011, the State Street SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (EDIV) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Broad Emerging Market ETFs 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.
Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well for investors who believe in market efficiency.
But, there are some investors who would rather invest in smart beta funds; these funds track non-cap weighted strategies, and are a strong option for those who prefer choosing great stocks in order to beat the market.
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.
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
Because the fund has amassed over $1.26 billion, this makes it one of the larger ETFs in the Broad Emerging Market ETFs. EDIV is managed by State Street Investment Management. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index.
The S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index includes 100 tradable, exchange-listed common stocks from emerging market countries that offer high dividend yields.
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 0.49% for EDIV, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 4.48%.
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.
Looking at individual holdings, Ambev Sa (ABEV3) accounts for about 3.4% of total assets, followed by Banco Bradesco S.a. (BBDC3) and Sino American Silicon Produc.
The top 10 holdings account for about 21.84% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added about 6.95% so far this year and is up roughly 12.69% in the last one year (as of 06/12/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $37.20 and $43.43
EDIV has a beta of 0.48 and standard deviation of 13.18% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 138 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
State Street SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Broad Emerging Market ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund ETF Shares (VWO) tracks FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) tracks MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index. Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund ETF Shares has $120.51 billion in assets, iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has $159.08 billion. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.06% and IEMG changes 0.09%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Broad Emerging Market ETFs
Bottom Line
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State Street SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (EDIV): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).