12 Dividend ETFs to Consider as Markets Head into Summer

Key Points

• Dividend-paying stocks tend to significantly outperform non-dividend-payers.

• Dividends can help keep retirees afloat or can generate funds to invest in more stock.

• Dividend-focused ETFs make dividend investing easy.

• 10 stocks we like better than iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF ›

If you don't yet appreciate the power of dividends for long-term wealth-building, take a gander at this table:

Data source: Ned Davis Research and Hartford Funds.

Image source: Getty Images.

Reasons to love dividends

Those numbers alone might be enough to have you looking for great dividend investments. If not, consider:

• Dividend-paying stocks tend to be less volatile, as they have income that's reliable enough to support a commitment to dividend payments.
• During economic downturns, healthy and growing dividend-paying stocks will tend to keep paying you.
• Such companies tend to increase their payouts over time, too -- often annually -- helping you keep up with inflation.
• Dividends can generate a lot of income -- to help support you in retirement or to invest in additional shares of stock. For instance, if your $500,000 portfolio has an overall dividend yield of, say, 4%, you can expect $20,000 in annual income -- and you can expect that sum to increase over time, too. If you're retired, that's a lot of extra income to help pay the bills, and if you're many years from retiring, that $20,000 can buy a lot more stock -- perhaps in more dividend-paying companies.
• Retiring with a lot of dividend payers in your portfolio means that shaving off shares of stock for income won't be as necessary.

12 attractive dividend ETFs

So what are some great dividend investments? Well, you can certainly seek solid dividend-paying stocks. But I'd like to suggest checking out some dividend-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Here are 12 to consider, including an S&P 500 index fund.

Data source: Morningstar.com, as of May 11, 2026.

There's a clear trade-off between dividend yields and growth rates, though a few of the ETFs -- such as the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF and the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF -- offer a good mix of both.

Here are some notes about the funds above:

• The fattest yield belongs to an ETF focused on preferred stocks -- which tend not to appreciate much over time but generally sport outsize dividend yields.
• Remember that the dividend yields above represent current payments to shareholders, and those payments will likely increase over time.
• The Vanguard Real Estate ETF is there because it's full of real estate investment trusts (REITs), which are required to pay out most of their income in dividends. These companies buy lots of real estate and then lease it out -- to retailers, medical companies, industries, hotels, data centers, and more.
• The Vanguard Energy ETF might be appealing if you expect the rapid growth of data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) processing to continue. That's because those data centers demand a lot of energy.
• The Vanguard Total World Stock ETF will have you invested in most of the world's stock markets -- while offering a solid dividend yield, too. This can be a good investment if you're worried about the U.S. economy -- or even if you just want to diversify your investments geographically.
• You don't have to select just one, or even two. You can always invest in a bunch of these funds if you want to. Just spend some time thinking about whether you're mainly seeking income and/or growth, and choose accordingly.

So give dividend-focused ETFs some consideration for your long-term portfolio, because dividends are really hard to beat.

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Selena Maranjian has positions in Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF, Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, Vanguard Real Estate ETF, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.