Investors in the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF, known by its ticker NOBL, learned this week that their fund returned 37.22 percent over the past five years with distributions reinvested, while the iShares Core High Dividend ETF, HDV, returned 82.92 percent over the same window, according to Yahoo! Finance.
The figures, published on October 22, 2026, translate into a gap of 45.7 percentage points. A $100,000 position in the ProShares fund grew to $137,220. The same amount placed in HDV grew to $182,920. Both windows start on October 20, 2021, and both figures assume dividends were reinvested.
Why the five-year gap is not the whole story
Before anyone rushes to sell, the longer record matters more. Measured from October 21, 2016, HDV returned 172.65 percent and NOBL returned 171.96 percent, a difference of just 0.69 percentage points over a full decade. After ten years, the two funds ended up in almost the same place.
The lesson is one that disciplined investors should internalize: performance claims are only as good as the window used to measure them. The five-year result depends heavily on the starting date. It does not prove that one fund is simply better than the other, as 24/7 Wall St. also reported in its analysis of the two funds.
Two different ways to pick dividend stocks
Both funds hold dividend-paying U.S. stocks, but they select them in different ways, and that difference defines what an investor actually owns.
According to its summary prospectus dated September 28, 2026, the ProShares fund tracks large U.S. companies that have consistently increased their dividends each year over a long period. It screens for a habit of raising payouts.
iShares says HDV tracks an index of relatively high dividend-paying U.S. equities. It screens for the size of the current payout. Moving from NOBL to HDV means giving up the dividend-growth screen in exchange for a high-current-yield screen, and that is a real change in risk profile, not a cosmetic swap.
Short-term windows all favor HDV
Over shorter periods, the recent record favors HDV every time. The fund led by more than 12 points over both the past year and year-to-date, a wide margin for two products built from the same broad universe of U.S. dividend payers, as AOL noted in its coverage of the comparison.
Tuesday afternoon's delayed quotes showed HDV trading at $30.05 and NOBL at $57.41. The share price itself tells an investor nothing about which fund offers better value; only total return and yield do that.
The tax question investors too often ignore
How an investor switches matters as much as whether they switch. In an IRA or a 401(k), selling NOBL and buying HDV triggers no tax, so the decision can rest purely on strategy. In a taxable account, selling NOBL shares that have gained in value creates a capital gains liability, and that tax bill can wipe out much of the expected benefit of chasing HDV's higher yield.
This is where government takes its cut of a rational portfolio decision. The capital gains tax turns what should be a costless reallocation into a transaction with a toll, and investors should weigh that toll before acting on a headline number.
There are easier paths. An investor can direct new contributions to HDV and leave existing NOBL shares in place. They can sell only the tax lots with the lowest gains. Or they can hold both funds and own both styles side by side, which is arguably the most honest answer given that neither style won over a decade.
What the decade-long tie really says
Ten years of nearly identical returns show that the dividend-growth strategy has not cost investors who stayed invested any real return. NOBL holders who value the dividend-raising record, or who face a large taxable gain on a sale, have little reason to feel they missed out.
For holders in tax-advantaged accounts, HDV's style has led in every measured window from one month to five years, and a switch there carries no tax cost. That group faces the clearest decision, and the recent record is on their side of the argument.
The broader point for any investor building an income portfolio is that patience and low costs beat style-chasing. The average dividend yield across all Dividend Aristocrats stands at 1.81 percent, according to Dividend.com's updated list, and NerdWallet offers a survey of the top Aristocrats by yield for those weighing the underlying companies directly.
Future leadership between the two styles remains uncertain. The ten-year tie says as much.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did HDV beat the Dividend Aristocrats ETF over five years?
Yes. HDV returned 82.92 percent over the five years ending October 20, 2026, against 37.22 percent for NOBL, a gap of 45.7 percentage points, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Is HDV better than NOBL over the long term?
Not according to the ten-year record. Measured from October 21, 2016, HDV returned 172.65 percent and NOBL returned 171.96 percent, a difference of only 0.69 percentage points.
Does switching from NOBL to HDV trigger taxes?
Only in a taxable account. Selling appreciated NOBL shares creates a capital gains liability that can erase much of the expected benefit. In an IRA or 401(k), the switch carries no tax cost.