Vanguard Utilities ETF
$172.69−4.17 (−2.36%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.09%
- Fund size
- $10.1B
- 1Y return
- −2.6%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 2.92%
- Holdings
- 69
- Volume · 30D
- 0.3M sh
- NAV per share
- $176.90
- 52W range
The ETF.net VPU Grade
Score 67 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 72Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 88Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 43Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.CScore 53Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.CScore 52Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 83Category rank
Our read on VPU
BUtilities, the whole sector, not just the S&P 500 slice. VPU tracks an index that reaches past the megacap names into mid and small utilities, about 70 in all, for 0.09% a year. Vanguard has run it since 2004.
The fund seeks to track the MSCI US Investable Market Utilities 25/50 Index through a primarily full-replication, passively managed strategy.
Why people hold it
- At 0.09% a year, it costs roughly a quarter of the median utilities fund fee. In a sector where the holdings barely differ between funds, the fee is most of the fight.
- Its MSCI Investable Market benchmark spans large, mid and small US utilities. XLU, by contrast, drafts only from the S&P 500 universe, so the smaller names never appear.fund-docs.vanguard.comssga.com
- The index's 25/50 caps exist to keep any single issuer under 25% and the pile of 5%-plus names under half the fund, a guardrail in a sector with a few giants.msci.com
- Plain full replication since 2004: buy the index, hold the index. Tracking here has been among the tightest in the US utilities group.
Worth knowing
- One sector, about 70 stocks. It swings on rate expectations and regulator decisions, with nothing outside utilities to cushion it.
- XLU and FUTY shave the fee to 0.08%, and XLU is the more heavily traded ticker if order size matters to you.
- Income arrives quarterly, not monthly, so the cash lands in four lumps a year.
VPU Holdings
- Stocks
- 69
- 53%
- NEE
Sectors
- Utilities99.2%
- Energy0.5%
- Industrials0.3%
Geography
- United States99.97%
- Cayman Islands0.03%
VPU Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
VPU$9,743
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 | VPU |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −3.2% |
| 1 month | −4.4% |
| 3 months | −8.6% |
| 1 year | −2.6% |
| 3 years | +12.0% |
| 5 years | +7.5% |
| 10 years | +8.0% |
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 | VPU |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −3.2% | |
| 2025 | +16.5% | |
| 2024 | +23.1% | |
| 2023 | −7.5% | |
| 2022 | +1.0% | |
| 2021 | +17.4% | |
| 2020 | −0.8% |
VPU in the news
VPU Dividends
- 2.92%
- $5.17
- $1.30 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 23, 2026 | Pays Sep 25, 2026 | $1.26 |
| Jun 24, 2026 | Jun 26, 2026 | $1.30 |
| Mar 24, 2026 | Mar 26, 2026 | $1.28 |
| Dec 17, 2025 | Dec 19, 2025 | $1.36 |
| Sep 24, 2025 | Sep 26, 2025 | $1.23 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $1.23 |
| Mar 25, 2025 | Mar 27, 2025 | $1.23 |
| Dec 18, 2024 | Dec 20, 2024 | $1.28 |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Oct 1, 2024 | $1.31 |
| Jun 28, 2024 | Jul 2, 2024 | $1.24 |
| Mar 22, 2024 | Mar 27, 2024 | $1.10 |
| Dec 19, 2023 | Dec 22, 2023 | $1.31 |
VPU Risk
- 14.7%
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.
- 0.64
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.
- −25.1%
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.
- 0.50
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
VPU Cost
0.09%
VPU0.09%
- The middle half of Utilities (Broad) funds
- Median 0.33%
2 of the 10 Utilities (Broad) funds charge less.