SPYD Dividend Calculator
Dividend growth rate (CAGR)
| Year | Yield | Div / share | Annual income | Yield on cost | Cumulative income | Portfolio value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4.2% | $1.99 | $426.00 | 3.4% | $426.00 | $13,063 | 274.38 |
| 2 | 4.3% | $2.11 | $577.97 | 3.9% | $1,004 | $16,343 | 336.28 |
| 3 | 4.5% | $2.23 | $751.01 | 4.4% | $1,755 | $19,867 | 400.45 |
| 4 | 4.7% | $2.37 | $948.15 | 4.8% | $2,703 | $23,663 | 467.24 |
| 5 | 4.9% | $2.51 | $1,173 | 5.3% | $3,876 | $27,765 | 537.07 |
| 6 | 5.0% | $2.66 | $1,429 | 5.9% | $5,305 | $32,211 | 610.38 |
| 7 | 5.2% | $2.82 | $1,722 | 6.4% | $7,028 | $37,045 | 687.69 |
| 8 | 5.4% | $2.99 | $2,057 | 7.0% | $9,085 | $42,319 | 769.58 |
| 9 | 5.6% | $3.17 | $2,441 | 7.7% | $11,526 | $48,090 | 856.70 |
| 10 | 5.9% | $3.36 | $2,881 | 8.5% | $14,406 | $54,425 | 949.80 |
Year 1-10 dividend income (preview)
Based on a $10,000 initial investment with $200.00 monthly contributions, DRIP on.
Historical dividends per share
Recent dividends
| Ex-date | Cash amount | TTM yield | Fwd yield | Share price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-23 | $0.45 | 5.4% | 4.0% | $44.64 |
| 2025-12-22 | $0.55 | 4.5% | 5.1% | $43.33 |
| 2025-09-22 | $0.49 | 4.5% | 4.5% | $43.51 |
| 2025-06-23 | $0.50 | 4.6% | 4.7% | $42.17 |
| 2025-03-24 | $0.42 | 4.3% | 3.8% | $43.94 |
| 2024-12-20 | $0.55 | 4.3% | 5.1% | $43.21 |
| 2024-09-20 | $0.46 | 4.1% | 4.0% | $45.16 |
| 2024-06-21 | $0.49 | 4.6% | 4.9% | $40.07 |
| 2024-03-15 | $0.37 | 5.6% | 3.8% | $39.15 |
| 2023-12-15 | $0.53 | 6.0% | 5.5% | $38.88 |
| 2023-09-15 | $0.44 | 6.1% | 4.8% | $36.62 |
| 2023-06-16 | $0.47 | 5.9% | 5.0% | $37.20 |
Source: Polygon.io. Last 12 dividend distributions, most recent first. TTM yield = sum of last 12 months of payments ÷ share price on ex-date. Forward yield = this payment × detected payout frequency ÷ share price on ex-date.
About SPYD
SPYD — the SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF — is a passive dividend-equity fund issued by State Street (SPDR) that tracks the S&P 500 High Dividend Index. Launched in 2015, the fund holds an equal-weighted basket of approximately the eighty highest-yielding stocks within the S&P 500. The construction methodology is straightforward: start with the S&P 500, rank constituents by trailing-twelve-month indicated dividend yield, take the top eighty by yield, weight them equally rather than by market capitalization, and rebalance the basket twice per year. The result is a portfolio that is concentrated in the high-yield slice of the S&P 500 — meaning the constituent set tilts heavily toward sectors that historically pay above-average yields: utilities, REITs, financials (regional banks and BDC-adjacent names that are in the S&P 500), energy, and consumer staples.
SPYD is concentrated in the high-yield slice of S&P 500. Compare to SCHD (broader, quality-filtered) and VYM (broader, yield-only filtered). The SCHD universe overlays quality screens onto a broader US dividend universe and selects a quality-screened top-one-hundred-name basket; the VYM universe applies a yield-above-median filter to the broader US universe and holds four-to-five-hundred names; SPYD restricts its universe to the S&P 500 first and then takes only the eighty highest-yielding names from that index, equal-weighted. The S&P 500 universe restriction means SPYD's constituents are all US large-cap; the yield-top-eighty restriction means SPYD is more concentrated than VYM in the high-yield sectors; and the equal-weighting means SPYD does not tilt further toward the largest market caps within the basket the way a cap-weighted approach would. The forward yield on SPYD tends to run above SCHD and VYM in most measurement periods as a result of the top-eighty-by-yield construction, though the gap varies with the relative pricing of high-yield sectors.
The structural consequence of SPYD's construction is that the fund's dividend stream is tightly tied to the payout policies of the S&P 500's highest-yielding sectors at any time. When utilities, REITs, and energy names dominate the top-eighty list — as they typically do — SPYD's distribution behavior is largely a function of those sectors' aggregate dividend policies. When financials enter the top-eighty list in larger numbers (as happens when bank-stock valuations compress and yields rise), the dividend cadence becomes more sensitive to bank-sector cyclicality. The fund went through a notable distribution-cut episode in 2020 when several constituent names cut or suspended dividends during the COVID demand shock — REITs, energy names, and one or two banks were the largest contributors — and the per-share distribution dropped materially before recovering in subsequent years. Investors evaluating SPYD for long-horizon income planning should expect the dividend trajectory to track the high-yield-sector aggregate rather than a smooth single-digit growth pattern.
How SPYD pays dividends
SPYD distributes cash dividends quarterly. The ex-dividend date typically falls in the third week of March, June, September, and December, with the pay date following a few business days later. The per-share cash amount is the aggregate dividend collected from the equal-weighted basket of approximately eighty holdings during the quarter, net of the fund's expense ratio. Because the basket is rebalanced semi-annually back to equal weights, individual holdings that appreciate substantially between rebalances temporarily carry more weight in the distribution calculation until the next rebalance resets them. Over a calendar year, the aggregate distribution is the meaningful figure for income-planning purposes; quarter-to-quarter variation is normal and not a signal of any change in underlying strategy.
SPYD's distributions are composed predominantly of qualified dividends — income from underlying US large-cap companies that meets the IRS holding-period requirements. For shareholders who also meet the qualified-dividend holding requirement (generally sixty-one days around the ex-date), these distributions are taxed at long-term capital-gains rates rather than ordinary-income rates. This is a meaningful tax advantage for taxable accounts at high marginal brackets, where the spread between qualified-dividend rates and ordinary-income rates is largest. A portion of distributions from REIT constituents in the basket pass through as non-qualified ordinary income (REIT distributions are not eligible for qualified-dividend treatment regardless of holding period), and the year-end 1099-DIV reports the exact split. Because SPYD's high-yield basket includes REITs in roughly proportional weight to their representation in the high-yield S&P 500 slice, the non-qualified portion is meaningful but not dominant. Tax-advantaged accounts (IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k)) shelter the income entirely and the qualified-versus-ordinary distinction is irrelevant inside the wrapper.
The expense ratio on SPYD is among the lowest in the dividend-ETF category — State Street's SPDR Portfolio line is positioned as a low-cost passive lineup, and SPYD's expense ratio undercuts most other high-yield-focused ETFs in the US market. The compounding advantage from a low expense ratio is material over multi-decade horizons; on a long-term DCA-plus-DRIP framework, the cumulative drag from a low expense ratio is meaningfully smaller than from a moderate one, and the difference shows up in the calculator's projected income line at the long end of the horizon.
Who SPYD suits
SPYD suits investors who specifically want concentrated exposure to the highest-yielding slice of the S&P 500, prefer the equal-weighting methodology over cap-weighting, and value the low expense ratio. The structural choice SPYD makes — restrict the universe to the S&P 500, then take only the top eighty by yield, equal-weighted — produces a higher current yield than SCHD or VYM and is more concentrated in high-yield sectors than either. Investors who want broader exposure across the dividend-paying universe should weight SCHD or VYM more heavily. Investors who want the high-yield concentration with the underlying universe restricted to the S&P 500 specifically (rather than the broader US dividend universe) and at a low expense ratio should weight SPYD.
The SPYD-versus-SCHD-versus-VYM comparison maps cleanly to the methodology differences. SCHD uses quality screens and selects from the broader US dividend universe — produces a top-one-hundred-name basket with higher historical dividend growth and lower dividend volatility, at a moderate yield. VYM uses a simple yield filter on a broad universe and cap-weights — produces a four-to-five-hundred-name basket with broad diversification and modest dividend growth, at a yield between SCHD's and SPYD's. SPYD restricts to the S&P 500, takes the top eighty by yield, and equal-weights — produces a concentrated high-yield basket with the highest forward yield among the three and the most sensitivity to high-yield-sector cyclicality, at the lowest expense ratio. The calculator on this page can be run across all three with the same inputs to compare projected income lines side by side over multi-year horizons.
SPYD is held in both taxable and tax-advantaged accounts. In taxable accounts the qualified-dividend treatment on the corporate-stock portion is a real after-tax advantage relative to option-income ETFs (JEPI, JEPQ, MSTY) whose distributions are largely ordinary income or return of capital, though the REIT-constituent portion of SPYD's distributions remains ordinary income regardless of account type. In tax-advantaged accounts the wrapper renders distribution-character differences irrelevant. The calculator on this page can model SPYD using the current forward yield and a modest annual DGR consistent with the fund's historical pattern; users planning around a long horizon should also run the same scenario with a flat or slightly negative DGR to test sensitivity to the kind of cyclical dividend pressure SPYD's high-yield-sector concentration has experienced in past stress windows.
Hypothetical scenarios
Scenario 1: $50,000 plus $500/month into SPYD over 20 years
Consider a hypothetical accumulation strategy: $50,000 starting capital plus $500 added every month, all in SPYD, with quarterly DRIP enabled. The calculator on this page can model this directly — set Initial investment to $50,000, Extra contribution to $500, Contribution frequency to Monthly, time horizon to 20 years, DRIP on. SPYD's dividend frequency is locked to quarterly on this page, so four annual distributions reinvest into additional shares, and monthly contributions add to share count at the current price each month.
The mechanics: each month the new $500 buys additional shares, each quarter the dividend received from the accumulated shares is reinvested, and the share count compounds over time. SPYD's starting forward yield typically runs higher than SCHD's and VYM's — often by one to two percentage points — because the construction methodology restricts the basket to the top eighty highest-yielding S&P 500 names. The higher starting yield accelerates the share-count compounding in the early years of the projection on the same dollar base, which compounds into a higher cumulative cash collected at any given horizon — provided the per-share distribution holds at or near the starting forward yield over the holding window. The structural risk is that the high-yield-sector concentration produces episodic cyclical cuts in the per-share annual distribution, which Scenario 2 explores in more detail.
A modest single-digit annual DGR is a defensible base-case assumption for SPYD, recognizing that the historical pattern has included flat-to-down years tied to sector-level cuts. Investors who want to model a more aggressive case can apply a slightly higher DGR; investors who want a conservative floor should run the same scenario with a zero or slightly negative DGR. The output worth focusing on is the per-quarter income figure shown beneath the KPI block — that's roughly what a holder would expect to see deposit into a brokerage account at the end of the horizon under the chosen assumptions. Real outcomes depend on the realized dividend trajectory of the underlying high-yield S&P 500 constituents across the holding window, the rate at which the fund rebalances among names as yields shift, and the broader path of the US large-cap dividend universe.
Scenario 2: SPYD through the 2020 high-yield-sector cuts
Consider a hypothetical SPYD position held through the 2020 COVID demand shock. SPYD's distribution dropped materially during 2020 as several constituent names cut or suspended dividends — REITs (particularly retail- and hotel-exposed REITs), energy names (oil-and-gas producers and pipelines), and one or two banks were the largest contributors. The per-share annual distribution declined meaningfully from its 2019 level before recovering across 2021 and 2022 as the affected sectors resumed payouts. This episode is the most informative stress-test data point for any investor considering SPYD as a long-horizon income holding because it illustrates how a high-yield-sector-concentrated basket behaves when the cyclical-cut tail risk materializes.
A holder who had been DRIP'ing $50,000 of SPYD across the 2018-19 period would have entered 2020 with a share count modestly higher than the original purchase amount and a quarterly distribution stream that had been steadily rising. The 2020 cuts produced a noticeable step-down in the quarterly cash arriving, and DRIP through the cut window reinvested the smaller distributions at depressed share prices (since the high-yield-sector constituents were also experiencing share-price declines alongside the dividend cuts). The combination of lower per-share distributions and lower reinvestment prices means the share count grew at a different pace through the cut window than a smooth single-digit-DGR projection would have anticipated, and the cumulative cash collected by the end of the recovery period lagged the projection that would have applied if 2020 had been a normal year. By the end of 2022, when most of the cut constituents had restored dividends, the distribution stream was approaching its 2019 trajectory adjusted for the path of the underlying high-yield-sector aggregate.
The structural lesson is that SPYD's high-yield-sector concentration produces a fatter tail in stress windows than SCHD's quality-screened basket or VYM's broader market-cap-weighted basket. The 2020 episode was a clear example, and the calculator on this page should be read with that conditionality in mind: a smooth multi-decade projection at a non-zero DGR does not capture the kind of episodic cut window SPYD experienced in 2020, and investors planning around a long-horizon income line should test multiple DGR assumptions to bracket the realistic range. The cumulative cash collected over a 20-year window depends meaningfully on whether the holding period includes any cut episodes of comparable magnitude to 2020, and the calculator's projection at a single optimistic DGR can overstate the realized cumulative outcome by a meaningful margin if the forward window includes one or two stress windows. The most defensible planning approach for SPYD is to use the calculator output as a base case at the current forward yield with a modest DGR and to run a conservative scenario at a flat or slightly negative DGR to model the impact of one cyclical-cut window over the projection horizon. Educational only; not a forecast.
Sources & methodology
Dividend history and price data come from Polygon.io's reference and aggregates endpoints. Forward yield is computed as the sum of the most recent four cash distributions divided by the previous-close share price. The dividend growth rate shown on this page is the compound annual growth rate of total annual distributions across the available history in this snapshot.
Last updated: 2026-05-15.
Information here is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Past dividend history does not guarantee future payments. Verify all figures with the issuer or a registered financial advisor before making investment decisions.