PINK vs VHT

PINKCSimplify Health Care ETF

VHTAVanguard Health Care ETF

In short

PINK Most big health care ETFs just buy the index and sit still. PINK is a stock picker: roughly 60 U.S. names chosen bottom-up, multi-cap, growth-leaning, with room to back companies developing new medicines or cutting system costs.

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

PINK PINK seeks long-term capital appreciation through U.S. health care companies, using a multi-cap, fundamental bottom-up approach. It generally follows a growth strategy and may emphasize companies developing medicines or improving health-care-system cost or quality.

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

Why people hold it

• PINK Active by design: about 60 U.S. health care names picked bottom-up, not several hundred sorted by market cap. Concentration cuts both ways, but each pick actually matters here.
• Measured against an all-cap health care benchmark, so small and mid caps are in play, not just the megacap pharma that dominates S&P 500 based sector funds like XLV and RSPH.
• Charges 0.51%, right at the category median, which is unusual pricing for a hand-picked portfolio rather than an index feed.
• Sits in the upper half of the broad health care sector group on our review, and pays out quarterly.

• 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

• PINK The category's index heavyweights (VHT, FHLC, XLV) charge under a tenth of a percent. PINK's fee is roughly six times that, and it buys the manager's judgment.
• No index to hug. Holdings come from a manager's calls, so the fund can sit far from the health care benchmark in either direction.
• One sector, one country, about 60 holdings, growth lean. Trial results and health policy headlines land with full force here.

• 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 PINK profile⁠

Full VHT profile⁠