Higher yield — lumpy payout. A 3.56% trailing yield from non-U.S. payers screened for at least 10 consecutive years of dividends, cash flow to debt and return on equity, at a 0.08% expense ratio. The annual total has not compounded smoothly — $0.98 a share in 2023, $1.07 in 2024 and $1.06 in 2025 — and individual quarters swing with foreign pay schedules, withholding taxes and currency, so the income arrives in uneven amounts even when the holdings do not cut.
Key risk: Foreign withholding taxes, currency moves and annual or semi-annual pay schedules at many overseas holdings: the dollar amount SCHY distributes can fall in a quarter even if no holding cuts its local-currency dividend.
Changes if: The annual distribution total falls for a second straight year, or several years of even, rising quarterly payouts replace the current $0.14–$0.36 swing — the grade rests on the payout pattern, not the yield alone.
- ✓Coverage check: Index screens require 10 consecutive years of dividends plus cash-flow-to-debt and return-on-equity scoring, spread across about 100 non-U.S. payers — no single payer carries the distribution.
- ✓Yield check: 3.56% trailing — $1.1748 over the last four payouts ÷ $33.03 at the Oct 23, 2026 close — is higher than the U.S. dividend ETFs in this library and comes from screened payers, not distress pricing.
- !Dividend growth check: No smooth growth record to grade: calendar totals rose 9.7% in 2024 then fell 1.3% in 2025, quarters since the fund went quarterly in 2024 have ranged from $0.14 to $0.36, and it paid semi-annually before 2024.
What this grade doesn't say: It screens the dividend only — covered, real, compounding. It says nothing about valuation or price: a well-covered payer can still be overpriced, and its price can still fall.