NOBL and REGL hold pure Dividend Aristocrats cheaply, but REGL's mid-cap tilt outperformed with 15% year-to-date gains against NOBL's 13%. KNG writes covered calls against its Aristocrats holdings, converting capped upside into a 6% monthly yield that is triple what NOBL pays. It sounds nuts, but SoFi1 is giving new Active Invest users up to $3,000 in stock for a limited time, and all it takes is a $50 deposit to get started.2 See for yourself (Sponsor) The Dividend Aristocrats index has always been a narrow club.
Companies need at least 25 consecutive years of dividend increases to qualify for the S&P 500 version, and the roster of ETFs built to own only these stocks is even shorter. Three funds handle almost all the flows: ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NYSEARCA:NOBL), ProShares S&P MidCap 400 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NYSEARCA:REGL), and First Trust S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Target Income ETF (NYSEARCA:KNG). Each of the three approaches the same universe from a different angle: NOBL as the equal-weighted large-cap flagship, REGL as the overlooked mid-cap sibling, and KNG as the covered-call income variant.
With the Fed Funds Target Rate sitting at 3.75% after 0.75% of cuts over the past year, and the 10-year Treasury at 4.69%, the case for owning quality dividend growers has to compete with a still-elevated risk-free rate. That competitive backdrop is what makes fund selection matter more than usual in 2026. The reference implementation of the strategy is NOBL.
According to the NOBL Summary Prospectus, it holds 60 equity positions drawn from the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index, weighted close to equally so that no single name dominates. The largest holding, Nucor Corp. at 1.76% of assets, sits barely above the smallest, Pentair plc at 1.15%. That flat weighting is the mechanism at work, preventing mega caps from crowding out smaller Aristocrats and keeping the fund tethered to the pure dividend growth thesis rather than to the cap-weighted structure of the S&P 500.
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Assets have grown to $11.07 billion, making NOBL the largest fund in the category and generally the most liquid. The expense ratio comes in at 0.35%, which is competitive with broad dividend funds. The trailing dividend yield is roughly 2%, with a trailing 12-month distribution of $2.03 per share.
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