SCHD ETF Record Close at $35.40: Dividend Rotation Beats QQQ

The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) finished Thursday, Oct. 22 at $35.40, the highest close in the fund's history, per a Motley Fool review of the session on Oct. 23. That beat the prior record close of $35.21 set on Aug. 24, and it put the fund up about 29% from where it ended 2025. By Friday, Oct. 23, the shares had given back a little, settling at $35.27, according to Yahoo Finance data retrieved Oct. 25.

The record is really a story about where this year's money went. On the same Thursday, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) lost about 3%, and the Nasdaq-100 fund has slid around 7% since Oct. 6, per the same Motley Fool review. SCHD rose about 8% over that stretch. The rotation is visible in the fund's own construction: as of Oct. 13, none of its 102 holdings belonged to Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta or Tesla, the names that led the market for years.

Related reading: S&P 500 record 7,818.95 on a 5.3% long yield: big caps climb while small caps and semis lag.

The fund's rules explain why it sits outside that group. The Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index behind it requires at least 10 straight years of dividends, which shuts out Amazon and Tesla, and it then keeps only the higher-yielding half of what passes. Meta and Alphabet only began paying in 2024, and the lower-yielding Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia names fall out on the yield cut. That leaves consumer staples and healthcare at roughly 39% of the fund and energy around 15%, with tech only about 12%, as of Sept. 30, per Motley Fool.

Size is not the whole story, but the numbers are worth a dated look. Texas Instruments, the fund's largest position, rose around 61% in 2026 through the review, while ConocoPhillips and Chevron gained about 56% and 49%, Merck and Amgen about 40% and 37%, and Coca-Cola roughly 36%. Together those six sat near 24% of the fund in early January and all still ranked among its ten biggest holdings as of Oct. 13, per Motley Fool. With dividends, SCHD's 2026 return is around 32%, versus roughly 28% for Apple, the closest of the seven, and single digits for most of the rest.

Related reading: S&P 500 Holds Near Record Close as Rotation Masks Bank, Chip Losses.

Who feels this matters as much as the tape. The fund held about $118.7 billion in assets with a trailing distribution yield near 3% and a 0.06% expense ratio, per Schwab. For income buyers and retirees, a record-close quarter on a low-cost dividend fund is the kind of result that shows up in a statement, not just a headline. The tradeoff is symmetrical: in 2023 through 2025, the dividend fund returned about 22% with dividends while QQQ returned roughly 135%, so when growth names lead, SCHD lags.

What is dated next is the March index reshuffle, when the fund drops whatever no longer clears the 10-year and yield hurdles, plus the pace of this rotation, since oil-linked payers that powered the run move with crude. A record close at a low-cost dividend fund is not a guarantee of anything, but the numbers argue the run is structural: SCHD reached its fresh closing high with no Magnificent Seven support and a yield near 3% that income buyers can still count on for this quarter's distribution.

Related reading: Growth led, then the 5% 10-year took the floor: a rate-shock rotation under thin breadth.

Related reading: A near-record close that isn't broadening: what the S&P 500's narrow advance is really saying.

This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.