Stick With Dividend Aristocrat ETFs to Beat 'Earnings Recession'

The best antidote for a slow growth economy is dividend growth, said Simeon Hyman, head of investment strategies at ProShares. 'Low interest rates support stock prices, but most emphatically only for companies that can deliver at least some earnings growth in these weaker economic conditions. Plus we are experiencing an earnings recession as S&P 500 earnings have shrank of late,' said Hyman. 'That is why companies with long track records of increasing their dividends have delivered earnings growth of late, and have been rewarded with significant outperformance.' Hyman suggested investors searching for solid dividend growth check out the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats (NOBL) - Get Report , which is up 12 percent thus far in 2016 compared with a four percent return for the S&P 500. The NOBL focuses exclusively on companies in the S&P 500 that have grown dividends for at least 25 consecutive years. 'We have been in this earnings recession, but if you look at the first quarter, there are 50 stocks in NOBL today, they generated over two percent positive earnings growth in the first quarter,' said Hyman.