Is it better to buy dividend stocks or ETFs?
Dividend ETFs can be a good option for investors looking for a low-cost, diversified and reliable source of income from their investments. Dividend stocks may be a better option for investors who prefer to choose their own investments.
The Risks to Dividends
Despite their storied histories, they cut their dividends. 9 In other words, dividends are not guaranteed and are subject to macroeconomic and company-specific risks. Another downside to dividend-paying stocks is that companies that pay dividends are not usually high-growth leaders.
Stock-picking offers an advantage over exchange-traded funds (ETFs) when there is a wide dispersion of returns from the mean. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer advantages over stocks when the return from stocks in the sector has a narrow dispersion around the mean.
Dividend investing can be a great investment strategy. Dividend stocks have historically outperformed the S&P 500 with less volatility. That's because dividend stocks provide two sources of return: regular income from dividend payments and capital appreciation of the stock price.
ETFs that focus on income, such as dividend or bond ETFs, can be sensitive to changes in interest rates. Rising interest rates can lead to lower bond prices, affecting the value of bond ETFs. Keep in mind that the ETF may hold bonds with different lengths, each experiencing different rate risk.
As part of a diversified portfolio, dividend stocks have their place. They offer relative stability, may pay increasing amounts over time and may provide steady income. But relying too heavily on dividend stocks as a primary investment approach could put you at risk and reduce your long-term investment gains.
At any given time, the spread on an ETF may be high, and the market price of shares may not correspond to the intraday value of the underlying securities. Those are not good times to transact business. Make sure you know what an ETF's current intraday value is as well as the market price of the shares before you buy.
You expose your portfolio to much higher risk with sector ETFs, so you should use them sparingly, but investing 5% to 10% of your total portfolio assets may be appropriate. If you want to be highly conservative, don't use these at all.
A single stock can potentially return a lot more than an ETF, where you receive the weighted average performance of the holdings. Stocks can pay dividends, and over time those dividends can rise, as the top companies increase their payouts. Companies can be acquired at a substantial premium to the current stock price.
| Stock | Dividend yield |
|---|---|
| Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL) | 3.4% |
| Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) | 6.7% |
| Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. (MAA) | 4.5% |
| Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB de CV (PAC) | 5.7% |
What is a good annual dividend?
Yields from 2% to 6% are generally considered to be a good dividend yield, but there are plenty of factors to consider when deciding if a stock's yield makes it a good investment.
| Company | Dividend Yield |
|---|---|
| Altria Group Inc. (MO) | 8.94% |
| Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. (WASH) | 8.54% |
| Alexander's Inc. (ALX) | 8.33% |
| Sinclair Inc (SBGI) | 8.32% |
Additional Risks Within Dividend ETFs
This can be because dividend growth stocks tend to be backed by durable companies that are more mature in nature and aren't growing nearly as fast. High yield ETFs on the other hand can be tempting because of their above average yields, but they may also be more unstable.
Can you live off ETF dividends? While it is possible to live off ETF dividends, you'll need to do some careful planning to make it happen. You'll need to balance how much income your investments bring in, and how much you spend.
Dividend ETFs or Dividend Stocks: Which Is Better? Dividend ETFs can be a good option for investors looking for a low-cost, diversified and reliable source of income from their investments. Dividend stocks may be a better option for investors who prefer to choose their own investments.
Payout Ratios Above 100% Are a Red Flag
Dividends are supposed to be a mechanism by which companies share their financial success with the shareholders. While dividends do not, strictly speaking, have to come from earnings it is not sustainable for a company to pay out more than it earns.
The Very Bad News For Dividend Stocks
Many of these companies are capital-intensive. Rising interest rates mean that their cost of capital goes up, thereby compressing their profit spreads considerably.
While there is no perfect answer, here are the general guidelines we like to follow when building a dividend portfolio: Hold between 20 and 60 stocks to reduce company-specific risk. Roughly equal-weight each position. Invest no more than 25% of your portfolio in any one sector.
A well-constructed dividend portfolio could potentially yield anywhere from 2% to 8% per year. This means that to earn $3,000 monthly from dividend stocks, the required initial investment could range from $450,000 to $1.8 million, depending on the yield.
But even at 9.5%, we're talking about a middle-class income of $4,000 per month on an investment of just a touch over $500K. Below, I'll reveal how to start building a portfolio that could get you an even bigger income stream than this today.
How much money do I need to invest to make $1 000 a month in dividends?
For example, if the average yield is 3%, that's what we'll use for our calculations. Keep in mind, yields vary based on the investment. Calculate the Investment Needed: To earn $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year, at a 3% yield, you'd need to invest a total of about $400,000.
Interest rate changes are the primary culprit when bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) lose value. As interest rates rise, the prices of existing bonds fall, which impacts the value of the ETFs holding these assets.
For most standard, unleveraged ETFs that track an index, the maximum you can theoretically lose is the amount you invested, driving your investment value to zero. However, it's rare for broad-market ETFs to go to zero unless the entire market or sector it tracks collapses entirely.
| Symbol | Name | 5-Year Return |
|---|---|---|
| GBTC | Grayscale Bitcoin Trust | 63.85% |
| USD | ProShares Ultra Semiconductors | 57.79% |
| FNGU | MicroSectors FANG+™ Index 3X Leveraged ETN | 50.24% |
| FNGO | MicroSectors FANG+ Index 2X Leveraged ETNs | 47.48% |
For most personal investors, an optimal number of ETFs to hold would be 5 to 10 across asset classes, geographies, and other characteristics.
