These ETFs Could Benefit From Apple Dividend Growth

Following another disappointing earnings report, shares of Apple AAPL traded in a wide range of nearly $23 Wednesday, but to the stock's credit, it closed with just a modest loss. Perhaps investors are feeling more cheery knowing that Apple plans to return $100 billion to them by the end of 2015 in a plan that includes a 15 percent dividend increase. Exxon Mobil XOM, the largest U.S. oil company, announced a 10.5 percent dividend increase Wednesday meaning the Dow component will pay $11.3 billion in indicated dividends, but even with that Apple's dividend hike means the iPad is the largest U.S. dividend-payer in cash terms. ETF investors have a few options when it comes to getting a slice of Apple's higher dividend, but those options do not include some of the largest dividend ETFs. Funds such as the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF VIG and the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF SDY, fine ETFs in their own right, use length of dividend increase streaks as a primary screening criteria. Since Apple is still new to the dividend increase game, the stock does not qualify for inclusion in VIG, SDY and related ETFs. A somewhat unheralded beneficiary of Apple's increased dividend could be the First Trust NASDAQ Technology Dividend Index Fund TDIV. As was noted in March, Apple was about to be included in TDIV's underlying index, the NASDAQ Technology Dividend Index. At the close of trading on April 23, Apple accounted for 7.2 percent of TDIV's weight, making the stock the ETF's fifth-largest holding behind Intel INTC, Microsoft MSFT, Cisco CSCO and International Business Machines IBM. TDIV, which debuted in August, has nearly $89 million in assets under management. Investors have a few other Apple dividend ETF options in addition to TDIV. In December, WisdomTree WETF announced several of its popular dividend funds would include Apple in their lineups. As of April 23, the $1.57 billion WisdomTree LargeCap Dividend Fund DLN had a 2.5 percent weight to Apple, making the stock ETF's sixth-largest holding just behind Pfizer PFE and just ahead of Chevron CVX. Apple is also the sixth-largest holding in the WisdomTree Total Dividend Fund DTD and the second-largest holding in the WisdomTree Total Earnings Fund EXT, although EXT is not a pure dividend ETF. For more on dividend ETFs, click here.