HRTS vs VHT

HRTSDTema Heart & Health ETF

VHTAVanguard Health Care ETF

In short

HRTS Broad health care funds own insurers, hospitals and dental supply. HRTS narrows to one battlefield: heart and metabolic disease, with at least 80% of assets in companies earning half their revenue there.

VHT The whole US health care sector in one ticket: roughly 400 stocks, an index that reaches well past the megacaps, and a nine-basis-point fee. Trading since 2004, it is one of the category's originals.

Stated mandate

HRTS The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital and invests at least 80% of its assets in publicly listed companies deriving at least half of their revenue from cardiovascular- or metabolic-disease treatments.

VHT The fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of health care stocks.

Why people hold it

• HRTS Written into the prospectus: at least 80% of assets in companies drawing half or more of their revenue from cardiovascular or metabolic disease treatment. Theme drift has a floor.
• About 50 stocks picked by a manager rather than copied from an index, so the portfolio can follow the science instead of waiting on a benchmark reconstitution.
• Nothing exotic under the hood: a plain 1940 Act fund holding listed stocks. No leverage sleeve, no derivatives wrapper to decode.

• VHT Costs 0.09% a year while the typical fund in its health care peer group charges 0.50%. Same sector, a fraction of the toll.
• Roughly 400 holdings drawn from an investable-market index, so mid and small health care companies count too, not just the sector's giants.vanguard.com
• Two decades old, now a multi-billion-dollar fund, moderately traded, and it has hugged its benchmark closely. Pays out quarterly.
• On cost, tracking and tradability together, it stands among the strongest builds in a 24-fund health care cohort.

Worth knowing

• HRTS 0.75% net of a waiver through June 28, 2027 (0.99% gross). That sits above the category median and well above broad peers like XLV at 0.08% or VHT at 0.09%.
• One of the thinner traders in its category and smaller by assets. Limit orders matter more here than with a mega sector fund.
• About 50 names in one disease niche: a single trial readout can move the whole portfolio. Concentration cuts both ways.

• VHT FHLC and XLV each shave a basis point off the fee. If the fee line is your only tiebreaker, VHT is not the final word.
• One sector, one news cycle. Drug pricing rules, patent expirations and regulatory decisions can move the entire basket at once.vanguard.com
• Cap-weighted with a 25/50 diversification rule, so no single name can dominate outright, but the largest pharma and insurer positions still steer most of the ride.vanguard.com

Full HRTS profile⁠

Full VHT profile⁠