Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF
$77.41−0.36 (−0.46%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.03%
- Fund size
- $51.9B
- 1Y return
- +1.7%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 4.53%
- Volume · 30D
- 4.4M sh
- NAV per share
- $77.75
- 52W range
The ETF.net VCSH Grade
Score 85 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 93Category 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 44Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 88Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 76Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 95Category rank
Our read on VCSH
ACorporate credit, kept short. VCSH tracks an index of investment-grade company bonds maturing in one to five years, at three basis points: you take company credit risk instead of government risk, with muted sensitivity to rate moves.
The fund seeks to follow a market-weighted corporate bond index with a short-term dollar-weighted average maturity, using index sampling and investing at least 80% of assets in index bonds.
Why people hold it
- A 0.03% expense ratio, versus a 0.12% median across its peer group. That is Treasury-index pricing for a fund doing corporate credit work.
- Running since 2009 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, which is one of the easier profiles to get in and out of in its category.
- Samples the Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index with at least 80% of assets in index bonds, and its book lines up closely with that benchmark.vanguard.com
- Distributions land monthly, not quarterly, and it sits among the strongest implementations in its cost-and-tracking peer group.
Worth knowing
- These are company bonds, not government paper. Investment grade, but credit spreads can widen when markets get nervous, and Treasuries do not carry that risk.vanguard.com
- The one-to-five-year maturity band cuts both ways: smaller price swings when rates jump, and less duration to work with when rates fall.fund-docs.vanguard.com
- Index sampling means it holds a representative slice of the benchmark rather than every bond in it, so small differences from the index are normal.vanguard.com
VCSH Holdings
- Bonds
- —
- 3%
- United States Treasury Note/Bond 4.38% 08/31/2031
Geography
- United States85.21%
- United Kingdom4.33%
- Canada3.52%
- Japan2.66%
- Ireland0.82%
- Spain0.82%
- Netherlands0.57%
- Australia0.51%
- 1.57%
VCSH Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
VCSH$10,171
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 | VCSH |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +0.5% |
| 1 month | −0.7% |
| 3 months | −0.1% |
| 1 year | +1.7% |
| 3 years | +5.4% |
| 5 years | +2.2% |
| 10 years | +2.6% |
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 | VCSH |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +0.5% | |
| 2025 | +6.8% | |
| 2024 | +4.9% | |
| 2023 | +6.2% | |
| 2022 | −5.8% | |
| 2021 | −0.6% | |
| 2020 | +5.1% |
VCSH in the news
VCSH Dividends
- 4.53%
- $3.52
- $0.30 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | Sep 3, 2026 | $0.30 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Aug 5, 2026 | $0.30 |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Jul 6, 2026 | $0.29 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | Jun 3, 2026 | $0.30 |
| May 1, 2026 | May 5, 2026 | $0.29 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | Apr 6, 2026 | $0.30 |
| Mar 2, 2026 | Mar 4, 2026 | $0.27 |
| Feb 2, 2026 | Feb 4, 2026 | $0.30 |
| Dec 18, 2025 | Dec 22, 2025 | $0.30 |
| Dec 1, 2025 | Dec 3, 2025 | $0.29 |
| Nov 3, 2025 | Nov 5, 2025 | $0.30 |
| Oct 1, 2025 | Oct 3, 2025 | $0.29 |
VCSH Risk
- 2.4%
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.
- 0.33
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.
- −9.4%
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.
- 0.41
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
VCSH Cost
0.03%
VCSH0.03%
- The middle half of Investment Grade Corporate (0-5 Year) funds
- Median 0.15%
No Investment Grade Corporate (0-5 Year) fund charges less.