Dividend Aristocrats or Quality Factor: Which ETF Fits Retirement?

Ask what makes a company strong, and two popular ETFs built around durable businesses give you opposite answers. The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (CBOE:NOBL) looks back at decades of dividend increases. The iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (CBOE:QUAL) looks at a company’s finances right now.

Their holdings barely line up. Only 24 companies appear in both funds. That shared group makes up 34.5% of NOBL but just 12.6% of QUAL. For investors near retirement and choosing between them, that gap determines what you actually own.

NOBL Rewards Companies That Never Stopped Raising Payouts

ProShares says NOBL’s index tracks S&P 500 companies that have raised their dividends every year for at least 25 years. ProShares adds that the index picks a minimum of 40 companies, weights them equally, and caps any single sector at 30% of the index.

Equal weighting means each stock gets roughly the same piece of the fund, no matter how big the company is. There’s also a safety valve. ProShares says that if fewer than 40 companies qualify, or a sector limit is broken, the index adds companies with shorter dividend growth histories.

As of its May 31, 2026 SEC filing, ProShares reports NOBL held 69 stocks. Its largest position, Nucor, made up 1.76% of the fund, and its smallest, Pentair, made up 1.15%. That’s how flat equal weighting looks in practice. ProShares notes that as of May 31, 2026, the index had a significant portion of its value in consumer staples and industrials.

A dividend streak long enough to clear ProShares’ 25-year bar shows a business has come through recessions and kept paying, but it says nothing about how that business looks today.

QUAL Grades Today’s Financial Health Instead

According to iShares, QUAL tracks an index of U.S. stocks with high return on equity, stable earnings, and low debt. Its benchmark is the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality Index. Return on equity measures how much profit a company earns on each dollar its shareholders have put in.

As of its July 31, 2026 filing, QUAL held 125 stocks. The largest were Microsoft at 7.16%, Apple at 6.64%, and NVIDIA at 5.85%. As of October 15, 2026, iShares reports information technology at 37.06% of the fund, compared with 4.42% for consumer staples and 8.45% for industrials.

Strong profits, steady earnings, and low debt describe a company’s condition now. A company can score well on all three without paying a significant dividend. As of September 30, 2026, iShares lists QUAL’s 12-month trailing yield at 0.85% and its 30-day SEC yield at 0.78%. The SEC yield is a standardized measure of the income a fund earned over the past month, after fees.

iShares puts QUAL’s price-to-earnings ratio at about 30 as of October 15, 2026. That figure represents what investors pay for each dollar of annual profit, indicating how highly the market values these companies.

Only 24 Stocks Pass Both Tests

Comparing ProShares’ May 31, 2026 NOBL filing with QUAL’s July 31, 2026 filing, 24 companies show up in both. They include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, Linde, S&P Global, Automatic Data Processing, Sherwin-Williams, Cintas, and W.W. Grainger. These holdings reflect those dates and shouldn’t be read as current.

Those shared names make up 34.5% of NOBL’s net assets but only 12.6% of QUAL’s. The difference comes from weighting. In an equal-weighted fund the size of NOBL, two dozen steady dividend payers add up fast. In QUAL, the same names sit well below the giant technology positions (Microsoft, Apple, and NVIDIA aren’t in NOBL at all).

The two tests agree on a familiar group of long-established dividend payers. They disagree on almost everything else.

QUAL Costs Less and Leads in Every Period

ProShares lists NOBL’s total annual operating expenses at 0.35%. iShares lists QUAL’s expense ratio at 0.15%. Here are price returns through the October 16, 2026 close.

QUAL is ahead in every period shown.

The one structural difference this comparison covers is sector mix. QUAL leans heavily on technology, while NOBL tilts toward staples and industrials.

iShares also filed for a forward stock split of QUAL on October 5, 2026, and split-adjusted trading begins November 5, 2026. A split raises your share count and brings down the price per share. The total value of your holding stays the same.

Which Fund Fits Which Investor

NOBL suits an investor who values a long, proven record of rising payouts and wants no single sector to dominate. QUAL suits an investor who wants profitable, low-debt companies today and accepts a heavy tilt toward technology and a smaller yield. QUAL’s share price will look very different after November 5, but the choice between these two definitions of strength stays the same.

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