Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bond ETF
$70.41−1.26 (−1.76%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.03%
- Fund size
- $9.8B
- 1Y return
- −2.3%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 5.73%
- Volume · 30D
- 4.5M sh
- NAV per share
- $71.55
- 52W range
The ETF.net VCLT Grade
Score 77 of 100 sits in the A 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 80Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 100Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 41Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 68Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 81Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 88Category rank
Our read on VCLT
AThe long end of investment-grade credit, held plain. VCLT tracks an index of corporate bonds with 10+ years left to run, costs three cents per $100 a year, and pays monthly. Maximum rate sensitivity, minimum toll.
VCLT seeks to follow a market-weighted corporate bond index with long-term average maturity. It uses passive index sampling, maintains maturity consistent with the index, and normally invests at least 80% of assets in index bonds.
Why people hold it
- 0.03% a year against a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate bond funds. On a position held for years, that gap is real money.
- The pure long lane: the Bloomberg U.S. 10+ Year Corporate Bond Index, while cohort leaders like VCIT, IGIB and IGSB sit short or intermediate.
- A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so entering and exiting rarely means fighting the spread.
- Boringly mechanical, which is the point: index sampling, at least 80% of assets in index bonds, monthly distributions, running since 2009.
Worth knowing
- Long maturities swing hard when rates move. This is one of the most rate-sensitive corners of investment-grade credit.
- Corporate credit only, roughly 300 bonds. No Treasuries and no short-maturity ballast to cushion a rough stretch.
- Sampling means it holds a representative slice of the index rather than every bond in it.
VCLT Holdings
- Bonds
- —
- 3%
- Anheuser-Busch Cos LLC / Anheuser-Busch InBev Worldwide Inc 4.90% 02/01/2046
Geography
- United States91.48%
- Canada2.02%
- United Kingdom1.90%
- Singapore0.65%
- Netherlands0.65%
- Japan0.61%
- Luxembourg0.43%
- Australia0.39%
- 1.86%
VCLT 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 | VCLT |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −1.9% |
| 1 month | +0.4% |
| 3 months | −3.2% |
| 1 year | −2.3% |
| 3 years | +4.5% |
| 5 years | −3.7% |
| 10 years | +1.5% |
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 | VCLT |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −1.9% | |
| 2025 | +7.2% | |
| 2024 | −1.9% | |
| 2023 | +11.2% | |
| 2022 | −25.8% | |
| 2021 | −1.7% | |
| 2020 | +13.3% |
VCLT in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on VCLT yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
VCLT Dividends
- 5.73%
- $4.11
- $0.36 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | Sep 3, 2026 | $0.36 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Aug 5, 2026 | $0.35 |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Jul 6, 2026 | $0.34 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | Jun 3, 2026 | $0.36 |
| May 1, 2026 | May 5, 2026 | $0.33 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | Apr 6, 2026 | $0.36 |
| Mar 2, 2026 | Mar 4, 2026 | $0.32 |
| Feb 2, 2026 | Feb 4, 2026 | $0.35 |
| Dec 18, 2025 | Dec 22, 2025 | $0.35 |
| Dec 1, 2025 | Dec 3, 2025 | $0.34 |
| Nov 3, 2025 | Nov 5, 2025 | $0.33 |
| Oct 1, 2025 | Oct 3, 2025 | $0.33 |
VCLT Risk
- 11.7%
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.
- −0.03
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.
- −34.5%
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.
- 1.97
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
VCLT Cost
- The middle half of Investment Grade Corporate (10+ Year) funds
- Median 0.15%
No Investment Grade Corporate (10+ Year) fund charges less.