Vanguard Short-Term Treasury ETF
$57.52−0.14 (−0.23%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.03%
- Fund size
- $39.3B
- 1Y return
- +1.8%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 3.79%
- Holdings
- 93
- Volume · 30D
- 4.3M sh
- NAV per share
- $57.64
- 52W range
The ETF.net VGSH Grade
Score 83 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 89Category 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.BScore 56Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 70Category 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 93Category rank
Our read on VGSH
APlain one-to-three-year Treasuries for three basis points, running since 2009. No credit story, no active twist: VGSH owns the short end of the government curve and charges about as little as this category allows.
The fund seeks to track a market-weighted Treasury index with a short-term dollar-weighted average maturity.
Why people hold it
- 0.03% a year, against a 0.15% median for 1-3 year Treasury funds. Same fee floor as SCHO and SPTS, and a fifth of what SHY charges for the same slice of the curve.
- Sticks tightly to the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury 1-3 Year Index, one of the closest-tracking implementations in its peer group.
- Roughly 90 US Treasury issues, sampled to match the index. No corporates, no mortgages, no derivatives overlay: the only credit question is the US Treasury itself.
- Pays monthly, and the income resets as short notes mature and newer ones roll in, so it moves with prevailing short-term rates. A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively.
Worth knowing
- Short maturities soften rate moves, they don't erase them. Prices still fall when yields rise, and the fund itself has no maturity date the way a single note does.
- At the short end the cost race is a tie, not a win: SCHO tracks the same index for the same 0.03%. Differences show up in trading and plumbing, not the fee line.
- Nothing here reaches for yield: no corporate credit, no inflation linkage, no long bonds. That narrowness is the design, and it behaves nothing like a core bond fund.
VGSH Holdings
- Bonds
- 93
- 14%
- United States Treasury Note/Bond 3.50% 01/31/2028
Geography
- United States100.00%
VGSH Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
VGSH$10,176
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 | VGSH |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +0.6% |
| 1 month | −0.5% |
| 3 months | +0.2% |
| 1 year | +1.8% |
| 3 years | +4.1% |
| 5 years | +1.8% |
| 10 years | +1.7% |
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 | VGSH |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +0.6% | |
| 2025 | +5.1% | |
| 2024 | +4.0% | |
| 2023 | +4.3% | |
| 2022 | −3.9% | |
| 2021 | −0.6% | |
| 2020 | +3.0% |
VGSH in the news
VGSH Dividends
- 3.79%
- $2.19
- $0.17 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | Sep 3, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Aug 5, 2026 | $0.18 |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Jul 6, 2026 | $0.18 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | Jun 3, 2026 | $0.18 |
| May 1, 2026 | May 5, 2026 | $0.18 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | Apr 6, 2026 | $0.19 |
| Mar 2, 2026 | Mar 4, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Feb 2, 2026 | Feb 4, 2026 | $0.19 |
| Dec 18, 2025 | Dec 22, 2025 | $0.19 |
| Dec 1, 2025 | Dec 3, 2025 | $0.19 |
| Nov 3, 2025 | Nov 5, 2025 | $0.19 |
| Oct 1, 2025 | Oct 3, 2025 | $0.19 |
VGSH Risk
- 1.6%
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.
- −0.27
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.
- −5.6%
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.
- 0.23
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
VGSH Cost
0.03%
VGSH0.03%
- The middle half of Treasuries (1-3 Year) funds
- Median 0.15%
No Treasuries (1-3 Year) fund charges less.