FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund (QDEF)
- Expense ratio0.37%
- Net assets$555.2M
- Dividend yield1.63%
- 1-year return+18.04%
- Holdings153
QDEF ETF price chart
QDEF quote & trading statistics
QDEF performance
Total return · as of October 17, 2026- YTD+13.74%
- 1 year+18.04%
- 3 years+19.74%/yr
- 5 years+12.52%/yr
- 10 years+12.00%/yr
- 1Y volatility
- 9.99%
- 3Y volatility
- 9.84%
- 3Y Sharpe ratio
- 1.41
Returns include reinvested distributions; 3-, 5- and 10-year figures are annualized.
QDEF top 10 holdings
| # | Symbol | Name | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AAPL | Apple Inc. | 9.45% |
| 2 | NVDA | NVIDIA Corporation | 6.50% |
| 3 | MSFT | Microsoft Corporation | 4.67% |
| 4 | JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | 2.66% |
| 5 | AVGO | Broadcom Inc | 2.52% |
| 6 | GOOGL | Alphabet Inc Class A | 2.35% |
| 7 | PM | Philip Morris International Inc | 2.07% |
| 8 | JPM | JPMorgan Chase & Co | 2.05% |
| 9 | LLY | Eli Lilly and Company | 1.94% |
| 10 | GOOG | Alphabet Inc Class C | 1.92% |
The top 10 holdings make up 36.1% of the fund (153 holdings in total). As of October 17, 2026.
About FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund
The underlying index is designed to reflect the performance of a selection of companies that, in aggregate, provide exposure to a high quality income-oriented universe of long-only U.S. equity securities, with an emphasis on long-term capital growth and a targeted overall beta that is generally between 0.5 to 1.0 times that of the Northern Trust 1250 Index, a float-adjusted market-capitalization weighted index of U.S. domiciled large- and mid-capitalization companies.
QDEF ETF FAQ
What is the QDEF expense ratio?
FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund has a net expense ratio of 0.37%, or $37.00 a year for every $10,000 invested.
How much money is in QDEF?
FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund has about $555.2M in net assets.
What are the top holdings of QDEF?
The largest positions in QDEF are Apple Inc. (9.45%), NVIDIA Corporation (6.50%), Microsoft Corporation (4.67%). The fund holds 153 securities in total.
How has QDEF performed?
QDEF returned +18.04% over the past year and +12.52% a year over the past five years, including reinvested distributions.
Does QDEF pay dividends?
QDEF has a dividend yield of 1.63% and pays distributions quarterly.
When was QDEF launched?
FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund began trading on December 14, 2012.
ETFs similar to QDEF
Funds that track the same index or whose top-10 holdings overlap most with QDEF's. Overlap: shared top-10 weight as a share of the larger top-10 total of the two funds.
| Symbol | Fund | Overlap | Expense ratio | Net assets | 1-year return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QDEF | FlexShares Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund | — | 0.37% | $555.2M | +18.04% |
| QDF | FlexShares Quality Dividend Index Fund | 86% | 0.36% | $2.19B | +17.80% |
| FDVV | Fidelity High Dividend ETF | 74% | 0.15% | $10.38B | +14.89% |
| KLMN | Invesco MSCI North America Climate ETF | 73% | 0.09% | $2.45B | +16.87% |
| LCTU | BlackRock U.S. Carbon Transition Readiness ETF | 73% | 0.14% | $1.17B | +15.18% |
| SCHX | Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF | 72% | 0.03% | $73.79B | +16.63% |
| GSLC | Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap… | 72% | 0.09% | $15.10B | +14.18% |
| DFAU | Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF | 72% | 0.12% | $12.92B | +16.50% |
| APUE | ActivePassive U.S. Equity ETF | 72% | 0.34% | $2.48B | +17.21% |