What SCHD Is
The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) is a $110.6 billion fund that charges a 0.06% expense ratio. As of 10/8/2026 it had 102 line items, of which 98 were stocks. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, which works in four steps:
- Start with U.S. stocks, excluding REITs, that have paid a dividend for at least 10 straight years.
- Keep the higher-yielding half.
- Choose the top 100 on a combined score of four measures: cash flow to debt, return on equity, dividend yield and 5-year dividend growth.
- Weight them by company size, with caps of 4% per stock and 25% per sector. The caps are set at each quarterly reset in March, June, September and December, using prices from a couple of weeks before the reset takes effect. Between resets, weights drift with prices. The only check in between is daily: if stocks above 4.7% add up to more than 22% of the index, it is re-weighted early.
Dividend stocks have had a strong 2026. SCHD is up 23.8% year to date through 10/8, compared with +14.2% for the broad large-cap market.
In August we checked popular index funds for Big Tech exposure and found that SCHD owned none of the eight giants (NVDA, MSFT, AAPL, AMZN, META, GOOGL/GOOG, AVGO, TSLA). That is still true, at 0.00% as of 10/8/2026. But SCHD's two largest holdings are now chipmakers. That raises two questions: is SCHD becoming a tech fund, and is it a bargain?
The Income First
SCHD pays quarterly. The latest distribution was $0.2665 per share (ex-dividend 9/23/2026). Multiplied by four and divided by the $33.15 share price, that is a 3.22% annualized run-rate. Over the trailing 12 months (October 2025 to September 2026), SCHD paid $1.0541 per share in four payments, a 3.18% trailing yield.
Distributions change from quarter to quarter because they pass through whatever dividends the underlying companies pay. Treat these as the latest actual payments, not guaranteed amounts.
Growth in the payout has slowed. The $1.0541 paid over the last 12 months is up just 1.95% from $1.0339 in the 12 months before, and the June 2026 payment ($0.2525) was below June 2025's ($0.2602).
Performance and yield figures are historical and may change. Total return includes price movement and distributions where available. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Yield is not the same as total return.
| Metric | SCHD |
| Price (10/8/2026 close) | $33.15 |
| 52-week range | $26.44 – $35.21 (closing prices) |
| Expense ratio | 0.06% |
| Assets | ~$110.6B (10/8/2026) |
| Latest quarterly distribution | $0.2665 (ex-date 9/23/2026) |
| Annualized run-rate | 3.22% |
| Trailing 12-month yield | 3.18% ($1.0541/share) |
| Holdings | 98 stocks / 102 line items |
Is the income eating the principal?
No. SCHD launched in October 2011. Through 10/8/2026, its total return including distributions is 540.42%. Measuring price return takes one adjustment: SCHD split 3-for-1 in October 2024, so a raw comparison of the launch price with today's price makes the price gain look like 32.7%. Adjusted for the split, the share price has risen roughly 298%.
| SCHD, Oct 2011 – Oct 2026 | Return |
| Price return (split-adjusted) | ~298% |
| Total return (price + distributions) | 540.42% |
| Gap: distributions and their reinvestment | ~242 percentage points |
Both the share price and the payouts grew. This is a fund whose underlying companies raise their dividends, not one that pays out of its own capital.
