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MarketsDeep Dive

VTI tracks the U.S. stock market, and large companies are 69.8% of it

Ten companies were 36.1% of the fund on Sept. 30, 2026, up from 33.4% on June 30.

ETF.net Research

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Key takeaways

  • Large companies were 69.8% of Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF, matching its index.
  • The ten largest holdings rose to 36.1% of the fund between June and September.
  • Through September the fund stayed within 0.01 percentage point of its spliced benchmark.
  • The July Morningstar rename left the fund's objectives, management and methodologies unchanged.
  • The fund's index includes micro-caps and is wider than the 2,500 largest U.S. companies.

Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF, VTI, tracks an index of the investable U.S. stock market. On Sept. 30, 2026, large companies were 69.8% of the fund, the same weight as in the index, and small companies were 7.7%.

Ten companies were 36.1% of the fund

Vanguard's fact sheet for that date counted 3,519 stocks. The ten largest were 36.1% of assets, up from 33.4% on June 30. Nvidia was 7.1%, Apple 6.6% and Microsoft 5.2%.

Only three VTI holdings exceed 5%

Portfolio weights in VTI

  • NVDA7.1%
  • AAPL6.6%
  • MSFT5.2%
  • AMZN3.3%
  • GOOGL2.8%
  • AVGO2.3%
  • META2.2%
  • GOOG2.2%
  • MU1.6%
  • TSLA1.4%

Amazon, at 3.3%, is the next-largest holding.

Vanguard's fund page says the Morningstar US Total Market Index represents approximately 100% of the investable U.S. stock market, including large-, mid-, small- and micro-cap stocks. The index held 3,478 stocks. Every size band in the fund matched the index, including the 69.8% in large companies.

The fund samples that index. The April 28 summary prospectus, which a July 29 supplement left unchanged, says it holds a range of securities that, in the aggregate, approximates the full index in terms of key risk factors and other characteristics.

Under normal circumstances at least 80% of net assets go into stocks in the index, and the rest may sit outside it. Vanguard says the fund remains fully invested.

A sampled fund can therefore hold more stocks than the index, not fewer. On Sept. 30 this one held 41 more stocks than the index.

The ETF is one class of a larger fund

VTI is one class of Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market Index Fund, which Vanguard also offers as a mutual fund. On Sept. 30 the ETF held $689.2 billion, less than a third of the $2,322.8 billion in the whole fund.

The shares started on May 24, 2001, and they trade on NYSE Arca. Over the 20 sessions through Oct. 21 they traded about $1.16 billion a day.

July renamed the index the fund already tracked

On July 29, 2026, the target index became the Morningstar US Total Market Index. It had been the CRSP US Total Market Index, from the Center for Research in Security Prices, or CRSP.

A July 29 supplement said Morningstar had announced its acquisition of CRSP and its indexes. Vanguard said on April 29 the name changes "will not affect the funds' investment objectives or how they are managed." Morningstar said on July 28 the rebrand "affects naming only" and that "index methodologies will remain unchanged."

The fact sheet measures the long record against a spliced benchmark, three indexes joined in sequence: the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index through April 22, 2005, the MSCI US Broad Market Index through June 2, 2013, and this index after that. July retitled the index the fund has tracked since 2013.

The fund stayed within 0.01 percentage point of its benchmark

Through Sept. 30, the fund's net asset value return, with distributions reinvested, matched that spliced benchmark to the printed hundredth of a percentage point for the year to date and for one, five and ten years. The three-year average and the average since the shares began each ran 0.01 percentage point behind.

Period through Sept. 30FundSpliced benchmark
Year to date12.58%12.58%
Past year15.33%15.33%
Three-year average22.32%22.33%
Five-year average12.56%12.56%
Ten-year average14.70%14.70%
Since May 24, 20019.44%9.45%

Year to date is cumulative. The other figures are average annual returns.

The expense ratio is 0.03%, the figure in the April 28 prospectus. The fact sheet says low expenses minimize net tracking error, and that the index is designed to deliver low turnover. The fund's turnover was 2.6% for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2025.

A wider market than the 2,500 largest

Schwab Asset Management's Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF, SCHB, tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Broad Stock Market Index. Schwab's page calls the fund "simple access to the 2,500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies," and says the index measures large-, mid- and small-cap U.S. stocks.

Vanguard's index includes micro-caps. Vanguard's fund page says the index represents approximately 100% of the investable U.S. stock market. On Sept. 30 it held 3,478 stocks.

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ETFs in this story

AVTIVanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF73/100ASCHBSchwab U.S. Broad Market ETF76/100

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