Vanguard Materials ETF
$225.80−1.86 (−0.82%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.09%
- Fund size
- $4.5B
- 1Y return
- +11.8%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 1.39%
- Holdings
- 115
- Volume · 30D
- 0.1M sh
- NAV per share
- $227.73
- 52W range
The ETF.net VAW Grade
Score 64 of 100 sits in the B band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.AScore 84Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.Not scoredRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 50Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.CScore 42Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.CScore 48Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 85Category rank
Our read on VAW
BVanguard's materials aisle in one ticker: chemicals, packaging and metals, roughly 120 names deep, for 0.09% a year while the category norm sits several times higher.
The fund seeks to track a materials-sector equity benchmark through passive indexing and normally invests at least 80% of assets in the benchmark's stocks.
Why people hold it
- Charges 0.09% a year, several times below the median for broad materials funds. Cheap enough that cost stops being the argument.
- Holds about 120 stocks from MSCI's US Investable Market materials index, so it reaches down the cap ladder instead of stopping at the biggest names.
- Plain passive indexing, at least 80% in benchmark stocks, and it has tracked that benchmark closely. One of the stronger builds in the materials group.
- Trading since 2004 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, run by Vanguard's index desk. Distributions arrive quarterly.
Worth knowing
- One sector, and a cyclical one. Chemicals, miners and packagers ride construction and industrial demand, so swings run wider than a total-market fund.
- Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so spreads can widen in fast markets.
- XLB and FMAT sit a basis point lower at 0.08%. A rounding error, but it exists.
VAW Holdings
- Stocks
- 115
- 57%
- LIN
Sectors
- Materials88.6%
- Consumer Discr.10.1%
- Industrials0.7%
- Health Care0.6%
- Cons. Staples0.0%
- Energy0.0%
Geography
- United States75.41%
- United Kingdom14.67%
- Ireland5.68%
- Switzerland2.78%
- Netherlands1.09%
- France0.21%
- Canada0.13%
- Luxembourg0.02%
Developed 100% · Emerging 0%
VAW Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | VAW |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +10.5% |
| 1 month | −5.0% |
| 3 months | −2.3% |
| 1 year | +11.8% |
| 3 years | +11.5% |
| 5 years | +7.2% |
| 10 years | +9.8% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | VAW |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +10.5% | |
| 2025 | +12.3% | |
| 2024 | +0.5% | |
| 2023 | +13.7% | |
| 2022 | −11.8% | |
| 2021 | +27.4% | |
| 2020 | +19.4% |
VAW in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on VAW yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
VAW Dividends
- 1.39%
- $3.17
- $0.80 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 23, 2026 | Pays Sep 25, 2026 | $0.78 |
| Jun 24, 2026 | Jun 26, 2026 | $0.80 |
| Mar 24, 2026 | Mar 26, 2026 | $0.79 |
| Dec 17, 2025 | Dec 19, 2025 | $0.81 |
| Sep 24, 2025 | Sep 26, 2025 | $0.77 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.82 |
| Mar 25, 2025 | Mar 27, 2025 | $0.83 |
| Dec 18, 2024 | Dec 20, 2024 | $0.86 |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Oct 1, 2024 | $0.84 |
| Jun 28, 2024 | Jul 2, 2024 | $0.82 |
| Mar 22, 2024 | Mar 27, 2024 | $0.68 |
| Dec 19, 2023 | Dec 22, 2023 | $0.89 |
VAW Risk
- 17.1%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.42
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −25.5%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.98
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
VAW Cost
- The middle half of Materials (Broad) funds
- Median 0.37%
2 of the 14 Materials (Broad) funds charge less.