This Dividend ETF Is Up 21% and Doesn’t Own a Single Share of Palantir

The iShares Select Dividend ETF (NASDAQ:DVY) has quietly rewarded income investors with a 21.05% gain over the past year, all without owning a single share of Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR | PLTR Price Prediction), the market’s flashiest momentum stock. That absence is baked into the fund’s design.

What DVY Actually Is

DVY is a dividend-screened equity fund run by iShares that targets established U.S. companies with consistent payout histories. As of April 30, 2026, the fund held 104 positions and reported net assets of $22.86 billion. The current expense ratio was not disclosed in the fund’s latest NPORT snapshot.

Performance has been steady rather than spectacular. DVY is up 1.33% over the past week, 3.57% over the trailing month, and 14.48% year to date. Zoom out and the picture holds: 62.4% over five years and 166.59% over ten.

Why It’s Up

The rally has been powered by unglamorous income stocks. The top ten holdings as of April 30, 2026 read like a dividend hall of fame:

• Altria Group (MO): 2.291%
• Pfizer (PFE): 2.216%
• T. Rowe Price Group (TROW): 2.023%
• Verizon Communications (VZ): 1.847%
• Prudential Financial (PRU): 1.843%
• OneOK (OKE): 1.831%
• Edison International (EIX): 1.534%
• LyondellBasell Industries (LYB): 1.527%
• General Mills (GIS): 1.519%
• Kimberly-Clark (KMB): 1.513%

The sector tilt tells the same story. DVY leans heavily into regulated utilities (Dominion, Exelon, NextEra, DTE, AEP, Xcel, WEC and more), regional banks (Huntington, Fifth Third, KeyCorp, U.S. Bancorp, Truist), energy pipelines and majors (OneOK, Chevron, EOG, Exxon), and consumer staples (Altria, Philip Morris, Kimberly-Clark, General Mills). Big utility and telecom weights, combined with a rotation back into value names, have carried the fund higher.

The Palantir Absence

Palantir is confirmed absent from the portfolio. The NPORT filing dated April 30, 2026 shows zero shares of PLTR across DVY’s 104 positions.

The reason is structural. DVY’s index screens for dividend-paying equities, and Palantir has never paid a dividend. Alpha Vantage lists Palantir’s dividend per share and dividend yield as None, with no dividend or ex-dividend date on record. A stock that pays nothing simply cannot enter a fund built around cash-return histories. This exclusion is definitional, and it will not flip on the next rebalance.

The valuation profile reinforces the point. Palantir trades at a trailing P/E of roughly 131 and a price-to-sales ratio of 53.54, well outside the value and yield territory DVY targets.

The Contrast in Returns

Investors who assumed they needed Palantir to keep pace with the market may be surprised by the year’s scoreboard. Palantir shares are down 27.26% year to date and 2.13% over the past 12 months, even after a 20.54% weekly bounce. Over that same one-year window, DVY quietly delivered 21.05%.

Funds that do hold Palantir, especially tech-heavy or momentum ETFs, have taken a different ride. DVY’s concentration risk sits elsewhere: in rate-sensitive utilities, regional banks exposed to credit cycles, and tobacco and pharma names facing regulatory scrutiny. Investors get income and lower valuation, but they also give up exposure to whatever the next AI-fueled rally looks like.

The Takeaway

DVY offers what it advertises: a diversified basket of established U.S. dividend payers, with the biggest single position, Altria, sitting at just 2.291% of net assets. That structure has produced a solid trailing-year return without any help from the market’s hottest ticker. Whether that trade-off fits depends on why an investor is buying. Income seekers get a durable mandate; growth chasers will need to look elsewhere.

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