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Asset management giant BlackRock announced Tuesday that its iShares arm is cutting the fee on a large dividend ETF. The fund, previously known as the iShares U.S. Dividend and Buyback ETF, will now have a management fee of 0.05%, down from 0.25%. It has about about $230 million in assets under management. The firm is also adding the fund to its core suite of funds and renaming it the iShares Core Dividend ETF . It will continue to trade under the DIVB ticker. “We see very much the core as a phenomenal instrument for investors to build better portfolios. And at a moment in time where you have rising rates, you have an inflationary environment, we believe that dividend equities in the U.S. is something that investors could use in their portfolios,” said Armando Senra, head of iShares Americas. The core suite is a small group of low cost funds, including the iShares Core S & P 500 ETF (IVV) , that have about $800 billion in total assets. The suite serves as a tool for investors and advisers to more easily implement model portfolios. It was started in 2012. The firm said that the fund is now the lowest fee dividend ETF on the market in the U.S.. Some of the biggest dividend funds from rival Vanguard, such as the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) , carry a fee of 0.06%. The fee cut comes as investors have shown a growing appetite for income-generating funds. According to Strategas Research, Treasuries and cash-liked bonds are the two subcategories of ETFs with the largest inflows of 2022. The value subcategory has also been popular this yea. The iShares fund is down 13.9% in 2022, outperforming the broader market, according to FactSet. Since its inception in 2017, the fund has an average annualized total return of about 10%. That performance would be slightly better at the newly reduced fee level. Dividends are distributed on a quarterly basis, and the fund’s last four payouts would equate to a dividend yield of roughly 2.1%. The fund’s top holdings include Apple, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and JPMorgan Chase. Its benchmark is the Morningstar US Dividend and Buyback Index.
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