The best value ETF depends on whose list you bought
Through October 1, Vanguard Russell 1000 Value ETF was up 19.3% in 2026, and State Street's S&P 500 value fund was up 9.1%.
Key takeaways
Through Thursday, October 1, Vanguard Russell 1000 Value ETF, VONV, which holds Russell's large and mid-size US value stocks, was up 19.3% this year. State Street's fund for the S&P 500's value stocks, SPYV, was up 9.1%. Most of that gap was already in place before Russell changed its list in June.
Vanguard Morningstar Value ETF, VTV, which holds large US companies on Morningstar's value list, was up 15.2%. It is the largest of the three, and it tracks a different index from either of the other two.
The gap was there before June
After the close on Friday, June 26, FTSE Russell's new list took effect. Apple and Microsoft, until then entirely in the growth index, were the largest additions by size and weight, FTSE Russell said, with just under half of Apple counted as value and Microsoft split in half. Micron moved the other way, from the value index entirely into the growth index.
From the end of 2025 through that June 26 close, counting dividends, VONV was up 16.2% and SPYV was up 7.6%. The full-year gap is 10.2 percentage points. From the June 26 close through October 1, the Russell fund added 2.7% and the S&P fund added 1.5%.
Apple is 8.3% of SPYV and 5.6% of the Russell fund, so the best-known stock that June moved onto Russell's value list is a bigger piece of the fund that lagged. Microsoft is not among the S&P fund's largest holdings.
VTV tracks Morningstar's large-cap value index, a different list with different rules. Micron is still its largest stock, at 3.9%, ahead of JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway. Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are not in its top ten.
It was up 15.5% by the June 26 close, close to the Russell fund, and then slipped 0.3% through October 1 while the Russell fund added 2.7%.
The lists follow different rules
Morningstar wrote on Wednesday, May 13 that what separates the funds is the rule for building the list, because a top-ten snapshot changes every time the index is rebuilt. On its account, the index behind VTV puts a stock on one list or the other, and lets a company move across over several quarters, so the holdings change slowly. The S&P index behind SPYV can hold a stock in both lists, and it can take in a growth stock that has fallen as soon as the price fits.
From 2016 through 2025, Morningstar found, both funds returned 11.67% a year, by different paths. The split between them this year is one of those paths, so a lead in 2026 is a weak reason to prefer one of these two lists.
VONV now holds Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft as its three largest stocks, together 16.7% of the fund. Technology is the largest sector, at 21%, and financials are 19%. As of Tuesday, December 30, 2025, the largest stock in Russell's value index was Berkshire Hathaway, at 3.1%.
State Street wrote on Monday, July 27 that technology had been the single largest contributor to the Russell 1000 Value Index's return through July 21. The index's technology stocks were up 71.8% for the year through that date.
Buy the cheap fund for that list
This year starts at the end of 2025, the past year ends October 1, and both return columns include dividends.
SPYV has the weakest return of these three lists, and it ranks first among the index-tracking funds it is scored with. On our method, the score weighs the fee most, then whether the fund did what it promised, then how it behaved when markets fell and how easily the shares trade.
A year's return is not one of those weights, and the score compares SPYV only with funds that make the same promise, not with VONV or VTV.
If you want Russell's list, buy VONV at 0.06% a year rather than iShares' fund for the same index, IWD, at 0.18%. Both returned 19.3% this year, so the higher fee did not change the result. On $10,000 the extra fee is $12 a year, and it comes out again next year.
IWD is larger and trades more heavily. That matters for a very large order. It does not matter in an ordinary account.
If you want the S&P 500's value stocks, SPYV at 0.04% is the cheap fund. iShares' fund for that same index, IVE, charges 0.18%.
If you want Morningstar's list, VTV at 0.03% is the cheapest of these funds, and the largest. Across these index funds, the list is what separated the results this year.
The list, not the fee, separated these funds this year
A manager, if you do not want a list
Avantis U.S. Large Cap Value ETF, AVLV, does not track an index. It buys large US companies it judges cheap, in the same company-size range as the Russell value list, and the fee is 0.15%. Meta Platforms, Micron, and Microsoft are among its largest stocks, and the fund launched in 2021.
SEI QiM U.S. Large Cap Value Active ETF, SEIV, is the close call the table leaves out. It also charges 0.15%, and it buys large US stocks priced below its valuation measures. Over the past year it returned 28.8%, ahead of Avantis at 27.5%, while this year Avantis is ahead, 21.4% to 20.3%.
SEI's fund holds $1.6 billion, against $21.5 billion in Avantis. On an average day, $6.8 million of it trades, against $173 million for the Avantis fund.
Choose the rule you want, then the cheapest fund that follows it.
ETFs in this story
Frequently asked questions
How far apart are the big value ETFs this year?
Through October 1, Vanguard's Russell 1000 Value ETF was up 19.3%, Vanguard Morningstar Value ETF was up 15.2%, and State Street's S&P 500 value fund was up 9.1%.
Did Russell's June list change open that gap?
Most of the gap was already in place before the new list took effect on June 26.
Did the Morningstar and S&P value funds split like this before?
From 2016 through 2025, those two funds both returned 11.67% a year, by different paths.
Did the pricier Russell fund return more than the cheaper one?
Vanguard's fund at 0.06% and iShares' fund for the same index at 0.18% both returned 19.3% this year.
