FTRB vs VTC: Grades, Fees and Holdings Compared

Federated Hermes Total Return Bond ETF

FTRBCNYSE Arca

Vanguard Total Corporate Bond ETF

VTCANasdaq

Overlap

No data

Expense ratio

VTC −0.36pt a year

FTRB0.39%VTC0.03%

Avg volume · 30D

FTRB 1.7×the volume

FTRB226KVTC129K

FTRB vs VTC Performance

Oct 31, 2025 – Oct 30, 2026

0.0%FTRB−0.6%VTC

Expense ratio: FTRB 0.39%; VTC 0.03%, better
Fund size: FTRB $724M; VTC $1.6B
1Y total return: FTRB 0.0%, better; VTC −0.6%
Yield (12M): FTRB 4.77%; VTC 5.13%, better
Holdings: FTRB 695; VTC 5209
Avg volume (30D): FTRB 226K sh, better; VTC 129K sh
NAV per share: FTRB $24.43; VTC $74.09
52W range

ETF.net Grade

Pillar letters and Scores for FTRB, VTC, with each pillar’s weight
Pillar	FTRB	VTC
Cost30% weight	F20	A98Higher
Mission25% weight	A93	A100Higher
Risk15% weight	C43Higher	D35
Tradability15% weight	B68	A70Higher
Holdings10% weight	F19	A94Higher
Durability5% weight	C52	A87Higher

Rank among Investment Grade Corporate funds

How we build Categories ›

Same Category. FTRB and VTC are both graded against the same 49 Investment Grade Corporate funds, so their Grades compare head to head.

Investment Grade Corporate⁠

Category · 49 funds

See all 49 ›

VTC ranks 3rd and FTRB 35th of 49 funds in the Investment Grade Corporate Category.

Rank 1AUSIGiShares Broad USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETFScore 90
Rank 2ASPBOState Street SPDR Portfolio Corporate Bond ETFScore 89
Rank 3AVTCVanguard Total Corporate Bond ETFScore 83
Rank 4AGIGBGoldman Sachs Access Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETFScore 80
Rank 33CJLQDJanus Henderson Corporate Bond ETFScore 51
Rank 35CFTRBFederated Hermes Total Return Bond ETFScore 50
Rank 36CEYEGAB Corporate Bond ETFScore 48

Our read on each fund

ETF.net Research

FTRBCFederated Hermes Total Return Bond ETF

VTCAVanguard Total Corporate Bond ETF

In short

FTRB An ETF wrapper on Federated Hermes' long-running multi-sector bond strategy: an investment-grade core measured against the Bloomberg US Aggregate, with license to roam into high yield and foreign debt. Active, not an index tracker.

VTC Most cheap corporate bond funds sell you one slice of the maturity curve. VTC buys the whole investment-grade corporate market, short to long, for 0.03% a year, and since 2025 it owns the bonds directly instead of stacking three Vanguard funds.

Stated mandate

FTRB The Fund seeks total return by investing primarily in U.S.-dollar-denominated, investment-grade fixed-income securities.

VTC The Fund seeks to track a broad, market-weighted corporate bond index, specifically the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Bond Index. It uses an indexing approach focused on investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds.

Why people hold it

FTRB Truly active mandate: primarily US dollar investment-grade bonds, with room for up to 25% of assets in below-investment-grade debt when managers like the risk-reward.sec.gov
Benchmarked to the Bloomberg US Aggregate, so the stance is broad core bond, not a corporates-only slice. Roughly 700 holdings.federatedhermes.com
Pays income monthly, and the portfolio has stayed closely aligned with the investment-grade mandate its prospectus advertises.

VTC 0.03% a year against a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate ETFs. On this exact Bloomberg index, nothing in the group charges less.
One ticker, the full corporate curve. Top-graded rivals like VCIT, IGIB and IGSB each buy a single maturity band; VTC's index spans short, intermediate and long fixed-rate corporates.
No overlays, no active tilts, no credit guesswork. Market-weighted indexing of investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporates, and the portfolio hews tightly to that mandate.
Income lands monthly, not quarterly, which matters if bond coupons are doing real work in your cash flow.

Worth knowing

FTRB 0.39% net of a waiver through September 1, 2027 (0.50% gross), above the category median. Index peers SPBO (0.03%) and USIG (0.04%) charge a fraction of that.
That 25% junk sleeve, plus non-dollar and emerging market bonds, brings credit and currency risk the plain index peers do not carry.sec.gov
Launched in 2024 and only moderately traded, so spreads can widen; limit orders are the usual answer.

VTC Whole-curve means long bonds in the mix, so prices move more with interest rates than a 1-5 year slice like IGSB does.
The plumbing changed in March 2025: Vanguard moved it from holding three underlying corporate bond ETFs to buying the index bonds directly. Same objective, same index.sec.gov
Moderately traded rather than a volume heavyweight, so spreads can run wider than the busiest corporate bond funds, particularly in choppy markets.

Full FTRB profile⁠

Full VTC profile⁠

FTRB vs VTC Holdings

How FTRB and VTC differ

No overlap figure

Two bond funds rarely hold the same issues.

Level by level

Countryby domicile87.5%
Asset classFixed Income100%

Sector

No Sector split for FTRB and VTC.

Country, concentration and asset class

Country by domicile

Country weights in FTRB and VTC, widest gap first
Country	More in FTRBMore in VTC	FTRB	VTC
United States	FTRB +12.3 points	98.5%	86.2%
United Kingdom	VTC +3.4 points	0.3%	3.7%
Canada	VTC +2.7 points	0.2%	2.9%
Japan	VTC +2.0 points	0.0%	2.0%
Australia	VTC +0.8 points	0.1%	0.9%
Spain	VTC +0.8 points	0.0%	0.8%
Belgium	VTC +0.6 points	0.0%	0.6%
Other countries (17)	VTC +2.0 points	0.9%	2.9%

Concentration

Weight in the 10 largest Holdings

FTRB58.1%
VTC1.6%

Securities held

FTRB690
VTC5,204

Asset class

FTRB: Fixed Income
VTC: Fixed Income

Holdings

Two bond funds rarely hold the same issues, so this page lists no shared Holdings. FTRB holds 690 securities, VTC 5,204.

All 691 FTRB holdings⁠All VTC holdings⁠

How we measure overlap

Each holding counts at its smaller weight in the two funds, summed over the full Holdings. Sector, country and asset class use the same rule on each fund’s split. Cash, FX and derivative lines stay out of the counts. Two bond funds get no overlap figure.

FTRB vs VTC Cost

Overpaying FTRB vs VTC

$7,260

On $10,000 over 30 years. 7% growth a year before fees, expense ratio only.

FTRB 0.39%
$7,898
VTC 0.03%
$638

Amount$10,000

Years30 years

Cost over time

FTRB 0.39%
VTC 0.03%
Overpaying

Year by year

Year	FTRB	VTC	Overpaying
10	$705	$55	$650
20	$2,725	$216	$2,509
30	$7,898	$638	$7,260

Expense ratio

0.39%FTRB
0.03%VTC, cheaper

VTC0.03%FTRB0.39%

0.03%0.53%

Middle half of Investment Grade Corporate funds
Median 0.25%

VTC cheapest of 49 funds

FTRB 39th cheapest of 49 funds

FTRB vs VTC Dividends

Last 12 months to Oct 30, 2026

Yield (12M): FTRB 4.77%; VTC 5.13%, better
Payout (12M): FTRB $1.16; VTC $3.80
Last payment: FTRB $0.10; VTC $0.32
Ex-dividend: FTRB Oct 30, 2026; VTC Oct 1, 2026
Paid on: FTRB Pays Nov 2, 2026; VTC Oct 5, 2026
Frequency: FTRB Monthly; VTC Monthly

Distribution history

Per share, 2023 to 2026, same scale for both

FTRBMonthly · 34 paymentsAll FTRB payments⁠

VTCMonthly · 45 paymentsAll VTC payments⁠

FTRB vs VTC Risk

Fall from peak · 5 years

This chart needs five years of history for both funds.

Risk facts

VolatilityStd dev, 3 years: FTRB 4.7%since Feb 2024VTC 6.3%
Return per unit of riskSharpe ratio, 3 years: FTRB −0.20since Feb 2024VTC 0.31
Worst fallMax drawdown, 5 years: FTRB −4.8%since Jan 2024VTC −21.7%
Market sensitivityBeta, 5 years: FTRB 0.12VTC 1.12; Market = 1

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