High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

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stlutz
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High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by stlutz »

I was noticing that the dividend yield on Vanguard Total International seems to be much higher than its competitors. Does anyone know why that would be.

Vanguard (VXUS): 3.07%
iShares (IXUS): 2.02%
Schwab (70/20/10 mix of SCHF, SCHE, SCHF): 2.27%

All three of these basically have the same expense ratio, so that's not it. And since these are all "total international funds", they are holding the same underlying securities.

Even if I look at different VG broad international funds (e.g. VEU, VEA), I notice the same gap.

The same difference does not exist on the domestic funds. VTI, SCHB, and ITOT (Vanguard, Schwab, and iShares total market) all have about the same yield.
Angelus359
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Re: High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by Angelus359 »

I was really tired when I wrote this and misread the op
Last edited by Angelus359 on Fri Jun 27, 2014 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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dnaumov
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Re: High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by dnaumov »

Angelus359 wrote:US stocks currently have a high price to earnings ratio, which drives % yield down
Re-read what the OP is actually asking.
Valuethinker
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Re: High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by Valuethinker »

HYPOTHESES not known fact:

- The Vodafone dividend (the largest in corporate history, anywhere, I think) will distort the yield of the funds holding it - so depends whether it has been paid out yet-- accrued v. paid dividends

- differences in the composition of the underlying index tracked - can you get a feel for that?

- is it possible in the US to charge the management expenses to the income from the fund, rather than the capital? That distinction exists in the UK not sure if in the US. Given low fees here that would seem to be a minor explanation at best
Angelus359
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Re: High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by Angelus359 »

Wow I was really tired when I wrote that. My brain was mush
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MossySF
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Re: High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by MossySF »

Here's the iShares page:
* http://www.ishares.com/us/products/2440 ... -stock-etf

Dividend section:
* 12m Trailing Yield as of 31-May-2014 2.02%
* Distribution Yield as of 31-May-2014 1.12%
* 30 Day SEC Yield as of 31-May-2014 3.23%

The Vanguard page:
* https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/ ... IntExt=INT

Dividend sction:
* SEC yield as of — —

Well that's pretty unhelpful of Vanguard so how/where Google is calculating the yield, I don't know. From looking at other Vanguard fund pages, it does seem like Vanguard only reports SEC Yield and if 3.07% is it, then it's not that far off from 3.23%.
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stlutz
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Re: High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by stlutz »

I pulled the data from Morningstar. The pattern holds looking at data as of the last couple of year ends, so I don't think it's related to a current corporate action.
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Re: High Dividend Yield on VXUS?

Post by MossySF »

stlutz wrote:I pulled the data from Morningstar. The pattern holds looking at data as of the last couple of year ends, so I don't think it's related to a current corporate action.
The question I posed above is if Vanguard isn't giving us the number, then Morningstar/Google/Yahoo/etc must be calculating it some other way.

Checking Morningstar, I see they use Trailing 12 months yield. Apparently out of date number since the 2.02% they list for IXUS matches exactly iShares's "as of 5/31". And from comparing distribution patterns for iShares vs Vanguard, the only time trailing 12 months can be used is during July after the 6/30 numbers are available. In any case, trailing 12 months don't work for relatively new ETFs which IXUS is. They only have made 3 distributions ever so you don't know yet whether they've fully replicated the index at this point.
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