Five ETFs For Rising Dividends

This year may just be shaping up to be the year of the dividend. After all, in late 2010 Standard & Poor's forecasted that as many as 250 S&P 500 constituents could raise their payouts this year and U.S. nonfinancial firms are sitting on $1.93 trillion in cash as of the end of September, according to the Federal Reserve. Those are nice factoids, but there is an almost dizzying array of ETFs investors can use to gain dividend exposure. The trick is finding the ones that could benefit from a fresh round of dividend hikes in the coming months, which could drive the ETF's capital appreciation as well. Here's a few to get started with. 1) JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN AMJ: AMJ offers a respectable yield of 3.75% and while many experts would argue the easy money in MLPs has already been made, it's hard to ignore the fact that it seems like every trading day of 2011 has brought news of another MLP hiking its distribution. 2) Guggenheim Canadian Energy Income ETF ENY: Another energy/yield play (3.44%), ENY should deliver capital growth as oil prices continue to surge and if natural gas prices finally see some relief, all the better because ENY is exposed to both fuels. 3) iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index DVY: DVY holds over 100 stocks with an emphasis on chronic dividend raisers like McDonald's MCD and Chevron CVX and high yielders like CenturyLink CTL and Altria MO. 4) WisdomTree LargeCap Dividend ETF DLN: DLN is heavily exposed to stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, many of which are reliable dividend raisers meaning this ETF could move higher in unison with the Dow and as Dow dividend hikes start to trickle in. 5) Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF VIG: VIG is also heavy on Dow stocks, but with 142 stocks, the ETF is far from a one-trick pony. If financials ever come to the dividend party, VIG should benefit as that sector accounts for almost 7% of the ETF's weight. Then again, VIG has performed well without that help and is trading near a new 52-week high. Investors probably do not need to own VIG and DLN at the same time.