If you’re looking to improve your investing knowledge, you’ve probably heard the merits of index funds — and of dividends. And one of the world’s most popular index funds, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), happens to pay a dividend.
However, some income-focused investors may prefer to focus on other funds that pay more than the VOO dividend. Here’s what to consider.
» Interested in ETFs? Check out the best ETFs by one-year performance.
What is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)?
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the S&P 500 index, a stock index containing about 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.
S&P 500 ETFs are popular among investors, as they provide a great deal of investment diversification within a single fund. VOO is the largest S&P 500 ETF in terms of assets, with more than $1 trillion under management at the time of writing.
VOO dividend yield as of May 2024
At the last update on April 26, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF had a dividend yield of 1.37%. But it’s important to note that yields can fluctuate with market prices.
The dividend yield of an ETF is equal to the sum of its dividend payments per share over the last 12 months, divided by its current share price — so as the share price changes throughout the trading day, the yield changes with it.
Over the last five years, VOO’s dividend yield has varied between a minimum of 1.22% and a maximum of 2.59%, with an average of 1.61%.
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VOO dividend history as of May 2024
Below is a table of every dividend payment from VOO in the last 18 months. The ex-dividend date is the deadline to become a shareholder in order to receive a dividend payment. Investors must own VOO shares before the ex-dividend date to receive the dividend on the payment date. If you buy them on or after the ex-dividend date, the person who sold them to you will receive the dividend instead.
Ex-dividend date | Payment date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
03/22/2024 | 03/27/2024 | $1.54 |
12/20/2023 | 12/26/2023 | $1.80 |
09/28/2023 | 10/03/2023 | $1.49 |
06/29/2023 | 07/05/2023 | $1.58 |
03/24/2023 | 03/29/2023 | $1.49 |
12/20/2022 | 12/23/2022 | $1.67 |
Source: Vanguard. Data is current as of April 24, 2024, and intended for informational purposes only. | ||
Is VOO a good fund for dividend investors?
On the one hand, VOO checks some boxes for dividend investors. It does pay a dividend, because it contains blue-chip stocks that are often reliable dividend stocks. All of the Dividend Aristocrats, a set of companies that have raised their dividends at least once a year for at least 25 years, are S&P 500 members, and thus VOO has exposure to all of them.
But on the other hand, VOO also contains a lot of other large companies — including tech stocks such as Netflix (NFLX) and Tesla (TSLA) — that don’t pay dividends at all.
In other words, VOO isn’t primarily a dividend-focused ETF, and there are other, more specialized high-dividend ETFs that may offer higher yields. For example, the Invesco S&P Ultra Dividend Revenue ETF (RDIV) currently pays more than twice the yield of VOO.
The author owned shares of the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF at the time of publication.
