KODEX US Dividend Covered Call Active, Yield Rated 'Excellent'

Samsung Asset Management announced on the 16th that KODEX US Dividend Covered Call Active outperformed 10 types of US Dividend Dow Jones ETFs listed domestically in key period returns.

The key period returns of the ETF were 1 month -1.59%, 3 months -4.34%, 6 months 1.64%, 1 year 12.13%, and 2 years 30.58%. In terms of the 6-month return, while all US Dividend Dow Jones ETFs recorded losses, it maintained a positive (+) return. The 1-year return achieved a performance more than 5 percentage points (P) higher, and the 2-year return was more than 8%P higher.

KODEX US Dividend Covered Call Active is a product listed domestically in September 2022 by replicating the 'DIVO' ETF, which is recognized in the US for its high returns and stable distribution performance through a flexible covered call management strategy. With a high proportion of tech stocks such as Microsoft (5.3%), CME Group (4.6%), and Apple (4.5%), along with financial stocks, it declined less compared to US Dividend Dow Jones ETFs during the volatile market since April this year. It showed excellent performance by rebounding more during market upswings like last year. Since early April, when volatility was extreme, KODEX US Dividend Covered Call Active recorded a cumulative return of -4.64% (from April 1 to April 15), falling approximately 2.63 percentage points less than US Dividend Dow Jones products listed domestically.

Starting with 0.47% at the early stage of listing, it steadily increased the monthly distribution rate to 0.82%, recently raising the annual distribution rate to around 9.6% per year.

As differentiated returns and high monthly distribution rates gained word of mouth, KODEX US Dividend Covered Call Active saw net purchases by individuals reach 186.1 billion KRW this year as of the 12th. Considering that net purchases by individuals were about 5.9 billion KRW during the same period last year, this represents an increase of more than 31 times this year. Net assets increased from 132.4 billion KRW at the end of last year to 328 billion KRW.

Im Tae-hyuk, Executive Director of the ETF Management Division at Samsung Asset Management, said, "It appears that individual investors who directly confirmed the high monthly distribution rate of around 9% per year and the high return performance of over 10% per year of KODEX US Dividend Covered Call Active are reversing their positions with this product, which is the 'Korean version of DIVO.'"

He added, "Not only the flexible active covered call strategy but also the high autonomy of this active product, which adjusts the inclusion ratio fluidly according to market conditions, will make it a good investment tool for investors who prefer stable cash flow."