Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Index to Measure
High Dividend-Paying Canadian Stocks and Income Trust Units
New Index Represents a Benchmark for High-Yield in the Canadian Market
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes today announced that Matrix Funds Management has licensed the new Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Index to underlie the Matrix Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Fund. This open-end mutual fund was launched today by Matrix Funds Management.
The Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Index, which was also launched today, couples a high-yield element counterbalanced with fundamentals-based factors that aim to target quality Canadian stocks and income trust units. The new index is designed to be the benchmark for high-yield equities in Canada.
"The Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Index, with stock and income trust components selected for their fundamental strength relative to peers, clearly represents a benchmark for high yield in the Canadian market," said Michael A. Petronella, President of Dow Jones Indexes. "And, with Matrix Funds Management's decision to use this new index as the underlying gauge for its Matrix Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Fund, Dow Jones Indexes continues to enhance its global brand as one with a long track record of creating reliable, rules-based market-measurement tools."
In addition to its licensing agreement on Matrix Funds Management's new mutual fund, Dow Jones Indexes also licenses gauges for 16 exchange-trade funds in Canada, including those announced in May 2010, October 2009 and June 2009.
The starting universe for the Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Index is The Dow Jones Canada Total Stock Market Index, which includes income trust units. From there, to create the eligible selection pool, stocks are subject to screens for size, liquidity, earnings and dividend yield. Stocks passing all screens are subsequently ranked by dividend yield from one to 100. They are further evaluated and ranked according to: dividend yield, three-year dividend growth, three-year earnings-per-share growth, dividend coverage ratio and capitalization ratio.
The rankings are equal weighted to create a composite ranking, and the eligible securities are then re-ranked based on this composite ranking. Of that, the top 50 stocks are selected as index components.
Stocks in the index are weighted according to dividend yield, with a weighting restriction of 8% on individual securities. The Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Index is reconstituted and rebalanced annually in December.
About Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Indexes is a leading full-service index provider that develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best-known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes offers more than 130,000 equity indexes as well as fixed-income and alternative indexes, including measures of hedge funds, commodities and real estate. Dow Jones Indexes employs clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families. Dow Jones Indexes is part of a joint venture company owned 90 percent by CME Group Inc. and 10 percent by Dow Jones & Company, Inc., a News Corporation company (Nasdaq:NWS) (Nasdaq:NWSA) (ASX:NWS) (ASX:NWSLV).
"Dow Jones", "Dow Jones Indexes" and each of the indexes listed above are service marks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC ("Dow Jones"), and have been licensed for use by CME Group Index Services LLC ("CME Indexes"). Investment products based on these indexes (including the Matrix Dow Jones Canada High Dividend 50 Fund) are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Dow Jones, CME Indexes or their respective affiliates and none of Dow Jones, CME Indexes and their respective affiliates make any representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. Inclusion of a company in any of these indexes does not in any way reflect an opinion of Dow Jones, CME Indexes or any of their respective affiliates on the investment merits of such company. None of Dow Jones, CME Indexes or any of their respective affiliates is providing investment advice in connection with these indexes.
Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses may be associated with mutual fund investments. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance provides no assurance or indication of future performance.
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