August is here, and it’s a great time to pick a passive-income fund to finish off your summer on a strong note. Two exchange traded funds (ETFs) that are on my radar this month are the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF (BATS:NOBL) and the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund (NASDAQ:DGRW).
For the rest of 2025, investors should consider stocks representing companies that have consistently raised their dividends. The NOBL and DGRW ETFs are both chock-full of dividend growers, but these two funds have key differences. So, let’s compare a pair of worthy dividend-growth picks and then choose a winner for August.
NOBL: Well-Balanced With Good Yield
Certain blue-chip businesses with outstanding track records of dividend growth might fall into a special category of “dividend nobility.” The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF specifically focuses on consistent dividend growers, and many of these companies are blue-chip names you’ll recognize.
To be included in the NOBL ETF, a company needs to have grown its dividend distributions for at least 25 consecutive years. Generally, speaking, it’s a positive sign when a business can afford to hike its dividends throughout a quarter-century.
There are 69 stocks in the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF’s list of holdings. Familiar names on this fund’s holdings list include McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB), Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO).
The NOBL ETF is well-balanced for a couple of reasons. First of all, its holdings cover multiple economic sectors (food and beverages, construction equipment, retail stores, etc.). Furthermore, the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF isn’t too lopsided toward any particular stock.
To provide a few examples, NOBL assigns relatively small and roughly equal weightings to the stocks of McDonald’s (1.54%), Kimberly-Clark (1.53%), Walmart (1.53%), Caterpillar (1.49%), and Coca-Cola (1.49%). These companies are definitely heavyweights, but their weightings aren’t too heavy.
Other vital statistics for the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF are that it features a 2.54% annual dividend yield and that it deducts a fairly low 0.35% expense ratio. Thus, the NOBL ETF’s good yield, low operating expenses, and balanced mix of stocks ought to convince dividend-growth investors to consider this fund in August.
DGRW: Heavy Focus on a Few Stocks
Another worthwhile contender among dividend-growth ETFs is the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund. The DGRW ETF is based on a 300-company index in which the constituents must have a market capitalization of at least $2 billion.
Moreover, this fund concentrates on “dividend-paying stocks with growth characteristics.” Like the NOBL ETF, the DGRW ETF covers many economic sectors and includes plenty of names that you might call “dividend overachievers.”
While the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund’s SEC 30-day yield of 1.47% doesn’t match up to NOBL’s 2.54% dividend yield. On the other hand, DGRW’s 28% annual expense ratio compares favorably to NOBL’s 0.35% expense ratio.
Along with the smaller dividend yield, the main concern about the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund is its heavy weightings toward a handful of stocks. In particular, the DGRW ETF assigns a 9.56% weighting toward Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock, 4.42% toward NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock, and 4.15% toward Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock.
Therefore, the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund assigns a total weighting of 18.13% to just three stocks. Not only that, but those three stocks are all in the same sector (technology). Some diversification-focused investors may be reluctant to allocate so heavily into these three particular tech stocks.
This isn’t to suggest that the DGRW ETF isn’t diversified at all. Bear in mind, this fund includes roughly 300 stocks, which is a whole lot more than the 69 stocks in the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF.
It’s only a potential concern that the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund allocates strongly into Microsoft stock and a couple of other tech stocks. You can decide whether this is a deal-breaker for your portfolio.
NOBL vs. DGRW: The Bottom Line
Now, it’s time to choose a winner for the month of August and, quite possibly, the rest of 2025. Should you choose NOBL or DGRW?
It’s fine to own a few shares of both of these excellent ETFs. The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF and the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund have some enticing characteristics in common.
These two funds both offer decent dividend yields (though NOBL wins in this respect). Plus, NOBL and DGRW have relatively low expense ratios so investors can enjoy bigger long-term profits.
Ultimately, however, I will select the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat ETF over the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund as my preferred pick for August. Even with its smaller number of holdings, the NOBL ETF uses more even weightings to provide balanced exposure to an array of premium dividend-growing firms.
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