DVY’s dividend screen has kept Palantir out, even as the ETF posts a 21% gain

Income-focused investors chasing steady returns often end up in very different places than those buying the market’s hottest themes. On July 6, a roundup of recent ETF performance highlighted one example: the iShares Select Dividend ETF, ticker DVY, has gained 21.05% over the past year, yet it does not hold a single share of Palantir Technologies, ticker PLTR.

DVY’s construction is the reason. The fund is described as a dividend-screened equity strategy designed to target established U.S. companies with consistent dividend payout histories. That means it is not meant to track high-growth or “flashiest momentum” names that lack the kind of dividend record required by the screening process.

In the same report, Palantir is positioned as structurally mismatched with that screening. The post cites Palantir’s price-to-earnings ratio of 131 and, crucially, its lack of dividend history, describing those traits as making it ineligible for DVY’s approach. Separately, it notes Palantir was down 27% year to date at the time of the article, underscoring the contrast between a dividend basket and a trading-range stock narrative.

The ETF’s portfolio is presented as diversified across more traditional income sectors rather than concentrated in tech momentum. As of April 30, 2026, the article says DVY held 104 dividend-paying positions, with a reported net asset value of $22.86 billion. It also states the current expense ratio was not disclosed in the fund’s latest NPORT snapshot, implying investors would need to check other filings or product documentation for that detail.

Performance figures in the post suggest DVY’s return profile is not purely a one-month story. It reports DVY was up 1.33% over the past week, 3.57% over the trailing month, and 14.48% year to date, then adds longer-window context with a 62.4% gain over five years and a 166.59% ten-year return.

The article also describes how the top holdings are drawn from established dividend payers rather than concentrated on a single thematic bet. It says the top ten positions as of April 30, 2026 read like a “dividend hall of fame,” and gives an example anchor holding: MO (Altria Group), described as sitting at just 2% of net assets, illustrating the portfolio’s diversification design rather than a single-stock tilt.

While the piece frames DVY’s results as a quiet win for income investors, it is also a reminder that “dividend ETF” does not automatically mean “any company with a yield.” For investors, the key filter is whether a company meets the fund’s dividend criteria, not whether it is widely followed in the equity market or associated with a major technology trend.

Still, the article does not provide everything one might want to evaluate the fund. It does not detail the specific DVY screening rules, the full list of the 104 holdings, or how the fund handles special cases such as recent dividend initiations. It also does not quantify how the absence of PLTR affects risk or yield outcomes, beyond saying the stock is ineligible under the screen.