My interest in this Index ETF relates to the "buyback" portion, rather than the Dividend portion -- as there are several well-known Dividend ETFs already (for example, VYM and VIG). There's also been endless discussion on whether Dividend Investing is good strategy. That was not my purpose in starting this discussion.
Instead, the 'buyback' tracking Index seems like a really novel way to target companies that, in theory, are solid bets because they are betting on themselves so to speak. I would be interested to compare the returns of such a fund against (1) the S&P 500 as a whole -- presented in the article as though the Index has substantially outperformed it since 2009, and (2) against a Dividend ETF for example VYM.
The strategy seems plausible -- by tracking companies that are paying high dividends and doing buybacks, it basically self selects for: large caps (?), those with decent Value rather than growth (because the dividend component is already tilted toward value, and the Buyback component self-selects companies who think they are themselves under-valued).
In any event, I guess it all comes down to what the ER turns out to be, and secondly, how many companies are in this ETF. Hopefully its a substantially number rather than only a few holdings.
UPDATE - the SEC filing indicates something like 380 holdings, so that's great. I was concerned if the number was going to be less than 100 or 50 holdings.