Should I invest in VOO or SCHD?
SCHD - Performance Comparison. In the year-to-date period, VOO achieves a 4.00% return, which is significantly higher than SCHD's 1.14% return. Over the past 10 years, VOO has outperformed SCHD with an annualized return of 13.04%, while SCHD has yielded a comparatively lower 11.93% annualized return.
If you want to optimize for dividends and share growth, SCHD would be a good choice for you. If you want to optimize for share growth from the overall U.S. stock market, VOO would be a better choice for you. There may even be room to add exposure to both, depending on how you want to build out your portfolio.
SPHD: Which Dividend ETF is Better? The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:SCHD) and the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:SPHD) are two popular dividend ETFs from leading asset managers. With a dividend yield of 4.5%, SPHD's yield is higher than SCHD's dividend yield of 3.5%.
Yes, dividend stocks as a whole underperformed the market, but SCHD did especially bad. If you look at the standard deviation of returns, we see that SCHD wasn't really any riskier than the market. Its maximum drawdown for the year was only about 1% greater than that of the S&P 500.
Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, SCHD is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Value area of the market.
The next reason SCHD remains attractive is that it owns a portfolio of blue-chip dividend stocks. SCHD owns 102 stocks, and its top 10 holdings make up a reasonable 40.5% of the fund's assets. Below is an overview of SCHD's top 10 holdings from TipRanks' ETF holdings tool.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO 1.03%) is one of the most popular investment options for index investors. And with good reason. Its low expense ratio and strong track record of tracking the index make it a great option for those simply looking to match the S&P 500.
The fund tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, which selects companies with a record of consistent dividend payments and strong fundamentals. SCHD is cheap to access with a low expense ratio of 0.06% and has shown respectable returns, making it a promising investment option for the passive income investor.
Investors are bidding up riskier assets on the belief that the economy is in good shape and will be yet for a while longer. That's put more defensive asset classes, such as dividend payers on the back burner. That has made SCHD not just an underperformer but a severe underperformer.
Ticker | Fund name | 5-year return |
---|---|---|
SMH | VanEck Semiconductor ETF | 33.26% |
SOXX | iShares Semiconductor ETF | 30.19% |
XLK | Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund | 27.00% |
IYW | iShares U.S. Technology ETF | 26.17% |
Is SCHD expected to go up?
Based on analyst ratings, SCHD's 12-month average price target is $82.51. What is SCHD's upside potential, based on the analysts' average price target? Currently there's no upside potential for SCHD, based on the analysts' average price target.
Several short-term signals, along with a general good trend, are positive and we conclude that the current level may hold a buying opportunity as there is a fair chance for VOO ETF to perform well in the short-term.

AI leader Nvidia (NVDA), Shopify (SHOP), Meta Platforms (META), Li Auto (LI), Array Technologies (ARRY) are expected to more than double earnings per share in 2023 or current fiscal year, some by far more. And they're all near buy points, with several actionable now.
VOO and SCHD have a lot of holdings overlap. But VOO contains all U.S. stocks in the S&P 500 index, while SCHD contains only the top-value dividend stocks. VOO has outperformed SCHD over the past 10 years. However, SCHD has a greater concentration of risk exposure in the top 10 holdings.
SCHD has a dividend yield of 3.45% and paid $2.66 per share in the past year. The dividend is paid every three months and the last ex-dividend date was Dec 6, 2023.
SCHD price and total return (including dividends) has outperformed VYM over a ten-year investment horizon (see chart below). Past performance is not indicative of future returns. VYM is better diversified, while SCHD has more holdings concentration risk. VYM has four times as many holdings as SCHD.
Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF™ Risk
Ratios above 1.00 indicate higher risk than average. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF™ has a below average total risk index of 1.09 because of its standard deviation of 16.3%.
Bottom Line: SCHD Is So Much More Than Just Its 3.7% Yield
No ETF is perfect, but SCHD is 5-star Gold rated by Morningstar, for good reason. Over the last decade, SCHD's post-tax returns are in the top 3% of its peers, and its pre-tax returns are in the top 2%.
Buying and collecting SCHD in a pension account can be a good strategy due to the tax benefits and the difficulty of selling the investment, making it a potentially profitable long-term option. "Collecting dividends steadily, regardless of the ranking, can lead to great profits in the future."
Month-end | 3-Month total | |
---|---|---|
VOO (Market price) | 1.60% | 16.02% |
VOO (NAV) | 1.68% | 16.01% |
Benchmark 1 | 1.68% | 16.01% |
Is S&P 500 better than VOO?
VOO - Volatility Comparison. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) have volatilities of 3.35% and 3.34%, respectively, indicating that both stocks experience similar levels of price fluctuations. This suggests that the risk associated with both stocks, as measured by volatility, is nearly the same.
Investors often trust QQQ and VOO with their funds because these investments give you exposure to the stock market without relying on trying to track individual stocks, which has proven to be extremely risky over the last few years. You can also purchase VOO as the Admiral Shares mutual fund (VFIAX).
Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD): Historical Returns. Video Player is loading. In the last 10 Years, the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) ETF obtained a 11.56% compound annual return, with a 14.49% standard deviation.
SCHD has never had an exceptionally high dividend yield and hovers around 2.5% to 3.5%. JEPI, on the other hand, has a significantly higher dividend yield than SCHD, with a very impressive 11.7% yield in 2022.
Investors investing in taxable accounts argue that SCHD's dividends aren't taxed as harshly as the interest income from a Treasury. That is true, but a favorably taxed unrealized loss of over 2% does not compare well with a taxed gain over 4%.
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