By Ambrose O’Callaghan
The case for the United States remains firmly intact. The U.S. continues to be a world leader in innovation, technology, consumer brands, healthcare, and artificial intelligence-driven growth. Many of the world’s most recognizable companies are American businesses with global reach, commanding pricing power, and the ability to compound earnings over long periods. Even amidst shifting market leadership, the depth, scale, and innovation engine of the U.S. economy continues to make it one of the premier destinations for equity investors.
The Harvest Income Leaders™ ETF suite invest in strong businesses in quality portfolios that deliver high income. They provide access to portfolios that are both sector focused, and diversified core U.S. and Canadian portfolios that delivered long term, consistent, and growing income.
Today, we will examine The Harvest US Equity Leaders Income ETF (TSX: HBF) [i]. Let’s jump in.
Dividend royalty, tech giants, and other U.S. equities command the global stage
The United States is home to many of the world’s most dominant businesses. These are companies with global reach, durable competitive advantages, and long track records of rewarding shareholders. For investors, this combination of stability, innovation, and shareholders returns has made U.S. equities a compelling long-term foundation for a diversified portfolio.
Dividend royalty in HBF
A dividend king is a company that has increased its dividend payout to shareholders for at least 50 consecutive years. Although the list of dividend kings has grown in recent decades, it is still a rare achievement that reflects financial durability, disciplined management, and the ability to navigate various economic cycles.
Dividend kings are often viewed as high-quality core holdings that combine the potential for reliable income with long-term capital appreciation. Four holdings in HBF have accomplished this feat.
70 Years of Dividend Growth | Protecter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble provides brand consumer packaged goods to a worldwide consumer base. It manufactures iconic, widely used brands like Tide, Gilette, Oral-B, and many more. The company has paid dividends for over 135 years and raised them annually for 70 consecutive years after declaring a dividend increase for April 2026.
64 Years of Dividend Growth | The Coca-Cola Company
Coca-Cola needs no introduction as the beverage company that manufactures and sells various non-alcoholic beverages around the world. The company announced its 64th straight dividend increase in early 2026.
53 Years of Dividend Growth | Walmart
Walmart is a retail behemoth that is engaged in operating stores, clubs, e-commerce websites, and mobile applications to international consumers. In April 2026, Walmart announced that it would hike its dividend payout for the 53rd straight year.
49 Years of Dividend Growth | McDonald’s
McDonald’s owns, operates, and franchises its famous restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company declared its 50th consecutive dividend increase in May 2026.
Perhaps lesser known are U.S. stocks that are qualified as dividend aristocrats. These are companies that have achieved at least 25 straight years of increases to their dividend payout. Dividend Aristocrat | Caterpillar
Caterpillar provides construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives, in the U.S. and worldwide. It has increased its annual dividend for 32 consecutive years, confirming its status as an S&P 500 dividend aristocrat.
AI: The rising tide in technology
Earlier this year, we explored the AI capital expenditure super cycle. Technology giants like Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and others are committing hundreds of billions in annual capital expenditure to data centres, GPUs, and model infrastructure. This spending spree is expected to underpin revenue growth for semiconductors, power infrastructure, and cloud platform companies for years to come.
Tech giants spending on AI:
- Alphabet – Increased its AI-related capital expenditure for 2026, raising its full-year forecast to between US$180-190 billion. This investment is driven by rising demand for Google Cloud and AI infrastructure.
- Apple – Adopt a “capital-efficient” approach, with low capital expenditure but a strong commitment to research and development (R&D). It has committed roughly US$4.3 billion to R&D in the first half of fiscal 2026.
- Amazon – Projected to invest roughly US$200 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, with most committed toward AI infrastructure, including data centres, custom AI chips, and networking equipment
- Microsoft – Expected to spend approximately US$190-200 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, also driven by AI infrastructure, data centres, and cloud computing capacity
HBF | A decade-plus of distributions
The Harvest US Equity Leaders Income ETF (TSX: HBF)[ii] overlays an active covered call option writing strategy on a portfolio of U.S. equity leaders. This has enabled HBF to pay out monthly cash distributions without interruption for what will be 12 consecutive years in July of 2026.
Annual Performance
As at April 30, 2026
| Ticker | 1M | 3M | 6M | YTD | 1Y | 2Y | 3Y | 4Y | 5Y | 7Y | 8Y | 10Y | 11Y | SI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HBF | 8.99 | 4.83 | 5.42 | 4.84 | 26.35 | 16.27 | 12.64 | 9.48 | 7.41 | 9.65 | 10.08 | 10.59 | 9.57 | 9.01 |
| HBF.B | 6.63 | 5.08 | 3.17 | 4.41 | 26.92 | 17.34 | 14.24 | 12.39 | 10.71 | - | - | - | - | 13.26 |
| HBF.U | 9.20 | 5.34 | 6.53 | 5.50 | 28.82 | 18.13 | 14.14 | 10.83 | 8.51 | 10.95 | 11.32 | 11.74 | 10.77 | 10.11 |
Quality U.S. Portfolio with High Monthly Income: HBF
The U.S. remains home to many dominant brands and innovative tech leaders, with powerful trends like AI supporting long-term growth potential. Both markets feature companies with exceptional dividend track records that have rewarded shareholders through various market cycles.
Investors can seek through exposure to strong U.S. businesses through HBF, while delivering consistent monthly income through a proven covered call option writing strategy.
Disclaimer
Harvest US Equity Leaders Income ETF[iii]
The Fund originally commenced operations as a TSX listed closed-end fund on July 24, 2014 and converted into an exchange-traded fund on October 24, 2016. Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in Harvest Exchange Traded Funds (managed by Harvest Portfolios Group Inc.). Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual compounded total returns (except for figures of one year or less, which are simple total returns) including changes in unit value and reinvestment of all distributions and do not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or optional charges or income taxes payable by any securityholder that would have reduced returns. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Distributions are paid to you in cash unless you request, pursuant to your participation in a distribution reinvestment plan, that they be reinvested into Class A, Class B or Class U units of the Fund. If the Fund earns less than the amounts distributed, the difference is a return of capital. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made with guidance from a qualified professional.
The current yield represents an annualized amount that is comprised of 12 unchanged monthly distributions (using the most recent month’s distribution figure multiplied by 12) as a percentage of the closing market price of the Fund. The current yield does not represent historical returns of the ETF but represents the distribution an investor would receive if the most recent distribution stayed the same going forward.
[i] Formerly the Harvest Brand Leaders Plus Income ETF
[ii] Formerly the Harvest Brand Leaders Plus Income ETF
[iii] Formerly the Harvest Brand Leaders Plus Income ETF
