XLU Dividend: Next Ex-Date, History & Total Return

The State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU) seeks investment results that, before expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Utilities Select Sector Index. To do that it uses a replication strategy, which means it typically holds substantially all of the index's securities in approximately the same proportions as the index.¹

The index includes companies that the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) identifies as utilities, including companies from electric utilities, water utilities, multi-utilities, independent power and renewable electricity producers, and gas utilities. The fact sheet says the index seeks to provide an effective representation of the utilities sector of the S&P 500 Index.^1,2

Every stock in the Utilities Select Sector Index must also be a constituent of the S&P 500 Index. Under normal market conditions XLU generally invests substantially all, but at least 95%, of its total assets in the index's securities, and it may also hold cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments, such as repurchase agreements and money market funds. The fund will give shareholders at least 60 days' notice before any material change to this 95% policy.¹

The index is one of eleven Select Sector Indexes, which together comprise all of the companies in the S&P 500. S&P Dow Jones Indices calculates it with a proprietary modified market capitalization methodology, under which the index may modify the weights of single stock concentrations to conform to the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code.^1,2

S&P Dow Jones Indices also determines which securities are in the index and their relative weightings, based on the index methodology. The firm is not affiliated with the fund or its adviser.¹

Dividend Stacker's record of past payments shows XLU paying 4 distributions in every completed year from 2001 through 2025, after 5 in 2000. The record's per-share amounts are adjusted for any share splits or reverse splits.³

The 2025 total was $1.16 per share, up 3.2% from $1.12 in 2024. That was the 15th consecutive completed year with a higher annual total than the year before. Over that stretch the yearly gains ranged from 0.5% in 2018 to 8.4% in 2019. Before 2011 the annual total fell in four years: by 37.8% in 2001 (to $0.44 from $0.7075), by 13.5% in 2003, by 7.5% in 2007 and by 0.2% in 2010.³

The prospectus says XLU's assets will be concentrated in the utilities sector, so the fund will be more affected by that sector's performance than a more diversified fund. Utility companies are affected by factors including supply and demand, operating costs, government regulation, environmental factors, liabilities for environmental damage and general civil liabilities, and rate caps or rate changes.¹

Regulated utilities usually get rate changes only after a delay following changes in their financing costs. The prospectus says this tends to help their earnings and dividends when costs are falling and to hurt them when costs are rising. Regulated utility stocks also may tend to move inversely to interest rates.¹

Other risks the prospectus lists for utility companies include rising fuel and other operating costs, the high cost of borrowing for construction during inflationary periods, the restrictions, costs and delays of complying with environmental and nuclear safety regulations, and the construction and operation of nuclear power plants.¹

Some utilities have been fully or partly deregulated, and the prospectus says these companies are frequently subject to greater competition. Some may earn more than their traditional regulated rates of return, while others may be less profitable.¹

The prospectus also warns that returns on large companies could trail those of smaller and mid-sized companies. XLU is a non-diversified fund. To the extent it invests in a relatively small number of issuers, a decline in a single holding may affect its value more than if it invested in a larger number of issuers. As an index fund, it attempts to track the index regardless of the current or projected performance of the index or its stocks, and its return may not match the index's return.¹