A €9 Billion Income Fund's Heavyweight Earnings Blitz Puts It a Fraction From a Record
Published on 08/06/2026 at 15:21 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The VanEck Morningstar Developed Markets Dividend Leaders UCITS ETF is sitting barely a half-percent below its 52-week peak, and the catalyst reads like a who's who of European corporate heavyweights. Within the span of a few days, Deutsche Telekom, HSBC, Crédit Agricole, Zurich Insurance and Glencore all delivered results that beat expectations — a concentrated burst of good news for a fund that counts several of them among its top holdings.
The fund, which tracks the Morningstar Developed Markets Large Cap Dividend Leaders Screened Select Index, last touched a 52-week high of 55.66 euros on August 4. It has since eased to around 55.36 euros, a whisker below that mark. Over the trailing twelve months, the vehicle is up roughly 27.5 percent, with a year-to-date gain of about 14.4 percent.
Telekom's Buyback Blitz
The standout mover was Deutsche Telekom. After reporting on August 6, the Bonn-based carrier saw its shares jump nearly 7 percent in a single session. Management's message was twofold: the company lifted its 2026 free-cash-flow forecast to roughly 20 billion euros and authorized an additional 3 billion euros in share repurchases, bringing the full-year buyback envelope to 5 billion euros.
The rationale, according to the board, was straightforward — the stock looked cheap on historical valuation metrics. Revenue for the quarter came in at 29.9 billion euros on an organic basis, up 3.3 percent, while adjusted EBITDAaL reached 11.8 billion euros. Growth was driven by operations in both Germany and the United States.
For a fund engineered around sustainable dividend yield, buybacks of this magnitude function as a direct return engine — capital that flows back to shareholders without waiting for a payout date.
Banks Carry the Portfolio
The fund's composition amplifies the impact of such results. Following a June reweighting, financials now account for roughly 44 percent of the portfolio, and that tilt is proving timely as European banks and insurers churn out robust earnings.
HSBC, one of the fund's largest single positions at about 4.7 percent, reported first-half pretax profit of $19.5 billion — a 23 percent jump from a year earlier. The London-headquartered lender also unveiled a fresh $1 billion buyback program, mirroring Telekom's playbook of returning excess capital.
Crédit Agricole followed suit in early August, posting record second-quarter revenue of 7.4 billion euros, a 7.7 percent increase.
Insurers and Commodities Join the Party
Zurich Insurance added another layer of positive news flow. The Swiss insurer reported first-half operating profit of $4.8 billion, topping the $4.66 billion consensus, with growth of 13 percent driven by its Specialty, Life and US Farmers divisions. Management raised its full-year guidance for the life business, now expecting operating profit growth of at least 10 percent rather than the mid-single-digit range previously flagged. The group's solvency ratio under the Swiss Solvency Test stands at 266 percent — a figure that bolsters confidence in its long-term dividend capacity.
Glencore, reporting a day earlier, delivered what may be the most dramatic numbers of the bunch. Adjusted EBITDA surged 86 percent to $10.1 billion, while net income swung to $4.4 billion from a loss a year earlier. The trading division was the star: adjusted operating profit there jumped 142 percent to $3.3 billion, helped by energy-market dislocations and a 39 percent rally in copper prices during the period.
Technical Signals Point Both Ways
The fund currently trades well above its 200-day moving average of roughly 50.7 euros — about 8.5 percent above that benchmark — confirming a firmly established long-term uptrend. The 14-day relative strength index sits in the mid-60s, suggesting optimism without the froth that typically precedes a pullback. Thirty-day annualized volatility remains muted at under 9 percent, a reminder of the defensive character baked into this collection of high-yield names.
With roughly 9.1 billion euros in assets under management, the fund holds 100 of the highest-yielding large-cap stocks from developed markets, screened for stability and sustainability criteria. The question now is whether the wave of buybacks and dividend hikes from Telekom, HSBC, Crédit Agricole, Zurich and Glencore finds imitators among the remaining holdings. If the RSI pushes toward the 70 overbought threshold, chatter about a short-term breather will grow louder — but the fundamental capital-return story from the fund's heavyweights shows no sign of losing momentum.
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