Russell 1000 Dividend ETF Hits $125 as Johnson & Johnson Leads The Safety Test

Quick Read

• ONEY’s largest holdings—Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, IBM—each generate substantial operating cash relative to dividend payments.

• The fund has compounded 212% over ten years without sacrificing principal, making distributions durable for income-focused investors.

• The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and SPDR Russell 1000 Yield Focus ETF wasn’t one of them. Get them here FREE.

The SPDR Russell 1000 Yield Focus ETF (NYSEARCA:ONEY) harvests income from large-cap American stocks by screening the Russell 1000 for companies combining high yield with quality and low financial risk. With ONEY trading near $125 and up about 20% over the past year, the question for holders is whether the distributions backing that performance are durable.

How ONEY pulls income from the Russell 1000

ONEY owns common stocks and collects cash dividends. The distribution you receive is the weighted dividend yield of the basket minus the expense ratio. Dividend safety at the ETF level reduces to dividend safety at the holding level, which is why the screen for quality and financial strength matters more than yield itself.

Sample holdings include Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), and IBM (NYSE:IBM). Each is a long-tenured dividend grower with a different story about safe yield in 2026.

The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and SPDR Russell 1000 Yield Focus ETF wasn’t one of them. Get them here FREE.

Johnson & Johnson: the anchor

Johnson & Johnson just raised its quarterly dividend to $1.34, extending its streak to 64 consecutive years. The yield sits at 2.4%. More important is the coverage: $24.5 billion in 2025 operating cash flow against $12.4 billion in dividends paid. JNJ generates roughly two dollars of operating cash for every dollar sent to shareholders, a cushion that survives litigation, the STELARA biosimilar cliff, and the planned Orthopaedics separation without forcing a payout cut.

Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola: steady compounders

Procter & Gamble just declared its 70th consecutive annual increase, lifting the quarterly to $1.0885. The trailing payout ratio works out to roughly 62% of earnings, which sounds tight until you remember P&G targets 85% to 90% free cash flow productivity and guided to $10 billion in dividends this fiscal year. Tariffs and commodity headwinds pressure margins, not the payout.

Coca-Cola raised its dividend to $0.53 per quarter, the 63rd consecutive annual increase. With FY2026 free cash flow guided to roughly $12.2 billion against $8.8 billion in dividends paid in 2025, the math leaves plenty of room. The BODYARMOR impairment and IRS tax litigation are noise around a cash machine.

IBM: highest yield, most to prove

IBM deserves close examination. The dividend yield is 2.9%, the increase streak is 31 years, and 2025 free cash flow of $11.6 billion covered $6.3 billion in dividends at 1.85x. Total debt climbed $6.3 billion to $61.3 billion after the Confluent deal, and the stock is down 25% year-to-date. The dividend itself is funded. The capital allocation question is whether buybacks slow to keep deleveraging on track.

Total return reality check

Yield without price stability is a trap. ONEY has compounded at about 55% over five years and 212% over ten, so income has not come at the cost of principal. Inside the basket, JNJ is up roughly 50% over the past year and Coca-Cola about 18%, offsetting IBM’s drawdown and P&G’s 8% slip.

The verdict

ONEY’s distribution is well-supported. The fund leans on companies whose cash flow covers dividends roughly two times over, with multi-decade increase streaks that act as behavioral commitments from management. The honest risk is concentration in a few high-yield names where capital allocation gets tested, IBM being the obvious example. For an investor who wants Russell 1000 exposure tilted toward checks that arrive on schedule, ONEY’s mechanics hold up. Reach-for-yield buyers chasing 6% or more should look elsewhere and accept the structural risk that comes with it.

The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks

This analyst’s 2025 picks are up 106% on average. He just named his top 10 stocks to buy in 2026. Get them here FREE.