With the FDVV stock price currently around $41.84, options market data shows increasing call activity at the $42 strike. This suggests some traders are positioning for a breakout if macro data softens inflation concerns. To be clear, past performance is no guarantee of future results. It’s unlikely that these stocks will continue to rise at this pace in the years to come, but this illustrates why it’s worth it for dividend investors (and funds) to include lower-yielding dividend-paying growth stocks within their strategies. This strategy is not perfect. Requiring 20 years of dividend growth turns away worthy candidates that fall just short. The index also ignores forecast metrics that can identify firms at risk to cut their dividends. Forward-looking screens may have jettisoned 3M before its reduced dividend forced the fund to sell in May 2024. The winners have outnumbered the losers over the fund’s nearly 20 years on the market, though. FDVV stock price performance has outpaced some peers in the dividend ETF space year-to-date, up roughly 2.1%. The fund’s overweight position in industrial and materials stocks has cushioned it from tech-led sell-offs.