ETFs / SPYD
What If You Had Invested in SPYD 10 Years Ago?
SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
SPYD $49.41 ▼ -0.98% last close, Nov 06, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in SPYD in November 2016, today it would be worth
$2,221
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,907
If you had put $500 a month into SPYD since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$99,224
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $129,289
More options in the What If calculator.
SPYD live price chart
SPYD returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | +17.9% | +17.9% | $1,179 | +8.8% |
| 3 years | +54.2% | +15.5% | $1,542 | +18.7% |
| 5 years | +57.1% | +9.5% | $1,571 | +11.5% |
| 10 years | +122.1% | +8.3% | $2,221 | +14.6% |
| Since 2015 | +170.0% | +9.4% | $2,700 | — |
SPYD year by year
Best full year: 2021 (+31.4%). Worst: 2020 (-11.6%).
| Year | SPYD | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | +18.0% | +8.7% | |
| 2025 | +4.6% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | +15.3% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | +3.9% | +26.2% | |
| 2022 | -1.2% | -18.2% | |
| 2021 | +31.4% | +28.7% | The reopening rally favored exactly those beaten-down sectors, and SPYD gained about 31%. |
| 2020 | -11.6% | +18.3% | SPYD fell while the market rose. Its biggest groups, real estate, energy and banks, were the most exposed to lockdowns, and many of its companies cut their dividends. |
| 2019 | +21.2% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | -4.9% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | +12.7% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | +24.6% | +12.0% |
SPYD: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 2015 (122 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 91 (75%). SPYD's two deep dips are where monthly investing paid off: it won most starts in 2019, ahead of the COVID crash, and nearly every start in 2022. Otherwise the lump sum usually won. The best case for monthly investing was a start in December 2019, when it finished the year 30% ahead.
Worst drop
SPYD's worst fall in this history was -36.6%, a deep bear-market fall, from December 2019 to March 2020. It was back at the old high by March 2021, only 12 months after the bottom. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $634 at the low.
The COVID crash hit SPYD far harder than the S&P 500, a fall of more than a third. Its biggest groups, real estate, energy and banks, were the ones lockdowns hurt most, and it took until March 2021 to get back.
SPYD dividends
SPYD paid $2.06 per share over the last 12 months, in March, June, September and December. At $49.41 that is 4.17%, a high yield, so a large part of the return arrives as cash. From 2020 to 2025 the yearly payout grew +3.7% a year, steadily. The yearly total fell in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023. Fund payouts move around with what the holdings pay, so a lower year is not a cut in the usual sense.
| Year | Dividends / share | Change | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $1.96 | +5.0% | 4.52% |
| 2024 | $1.86 | +2.0% | 4.31% |
| 2023 | $1.83 | -7.9% | 4.66% |
| 2022 | $1.98 | +72.3% | 5.01% |
| 2021 | $1.15 | -29.5% | 2.74% |
| 2020 | $1.63 | -6.5% | 4.96% |
| 2019 | $1.75 | +7.8% | 4.42% |
| 2018 | $1.62 | -6.7% | 4.75% |
| 2017 | $1.74 | +14.7% | 4.64% |
| 2016 | $1.51 | +357.4% | 4.34% |
Yield = each year’s dividends divided by the price at the end of the year.
SPYD dividend history: last 12 payments
| Ex-dividend date | Amount | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 21, 2026 | $0.5180 | -4.6% |
| Jun 22, 2026 | $0.5430 | +20.7% |
| Mar 23, 2026 | $0.4500 | -18.0% |
| Dec 22, 2025 | $0.5490 | +12.3% |
| Sep 22, 2025 | $0.4890 | -2.2% |
| Jun 23, 2025 | $0.5000 | +19.3% |
| Mar 24, 2025 | $0.4190 | -23.4% |
| Dec 20, 2024 | $0.5470 | +19.7% |
| Sep 20, 2024 | $0.4570 | -6.2% |
| Jun 21, 2024 | $0.4870 | +30.6% |
| Mar 15, 2024 | $0.3730 | -30.1% |
| Dec 15, 2023 | $0.5340 | — |
How much SPYD do you need for $1,000 a month?
About $287,825, or roughly 5,825 shares at $49.41. That uses SPYD's last 12 months of dividends ($2.06 a share, a 4.17% yield) and is before tax.
| Income | Invest | Shares | Paid as |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $143,913 | 2,913 | $1,500/qtr |
| $1,000 | $287,825 | 5,825 | $3,000/qtr |
| $2,000 | $575,650 | 11,650 | $6,000/qtr |
SPYD pays quarterly (ex-dividend in Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec), so “$1,000 a month” really arrives as about $3,000 four times a year.
The payout grew 3.7% a year over the last five years. If it kept that pace, about $200,410 invested today, with nothing added and nothing reinvested, would be paying $1,000 a month ten years from now. That is a projection, not a promise.
A sizable part of SPYD is real estate investment trusts, whose dividends are mostly non-qualified, so in a taxable account part of SPYD's payout is taxed as ordinary income rather than at the lower qualified rate. The fund's year-end tax report shows the split.
Want to build toward it with monthly buys? Try the dividend calculator with SPYD's numbers filled in.
About SPYD
| Issuer | State Street |
| Launched | October 2015 |
| Tracks | S&P 500 High Dividend Index |
| Expense ratio | 0.07% |
| Holdings | The 80 highest-yielding S&P 500 stocks, equally weighted |
Fund details as of 2025. Check the issuer for the current expense ratio and holdings.
SPYD takes the 80 stocks in the S&P 500 with the highest dividend yields and gives each roughly the same weight, rebuilding the list twice a year, in January and July. There are no quality or dividend-growth tests; yield alone decides.
That simple rule fills the fund with real estate, utilities, energy, banks and tobacco, the sectors that pay the most. It also means a company whose share price has collapsed can get in because its yield has jumped, which is exactly the trap SCHD's screens are designed to avoid.
Watch the dividend, not just the yield
SPYD's payout per share fell by about 30% from 2020 to 2021 in the data on this page, as companies hurt by the pandemic cut their dividends. A fund that simply buys whatever yields the most can see its income shrink fast in a recession, which is when income matters most.
Cheap, but simple
At 0.07% SPYD is one of the cheapest high-dividend funds. Its rules are easy to follow and its sector bets are large: when real estate, utilities or energy have a good year, SPYD usually beats the market, and when they struggle, it lags badly.
Questions about SPYD
Did SPYD beat the S&P 500?
No. Over the last 10 years it trailed by 6.3 percentage points a year: +8.3% a year for SPYD against +14.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. It also fell harder at its worst (-36.6% against -23.9% for SPY over the same history).
SPYD or SCHD?
SPYD picks the highest yields and weights them equally; SCHD screens for financial strength and dividend growth. SPYD usually yields more, but its payout fell after 2020 as holdings cut dividends, while SCHD's kept rising. Since SPYD launched in 2015, SCHD's total return has also been much higher.