Investment objective & strategy
As of Dec. 19, 2025 · prospectusObjective. Vanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF (the Fund) seeks to track the performance of a market-weighted corporate bond index that measures the investment return of investment-grade U.S. dollar-denominated bonds and is screened for certain environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria.
Strategy. The Fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg MSCI US Corporate SRI Select Index (the Target Index). The Target Index is a subset of the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Index, which serves as the universe of eligible bonds for use in constructing the Target Index and includes U.S. dollar-denominated, taxable, investment-grade corporate bonds. The Target Index excludes bonds with maturities of less than 1 year and with less than $750 million outstanding and is screened for certain ESG criteria by the Index Provider. Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in the bonds that make up the Target Index. … The Fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg MSCI US Corporate SRI Select Index (the Target Index). The Target Index is a subset of the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Index, which serves as the universe of eligible bonds for use in constructing the Target Index and includes U.S. dollar-denominated, taxable, investment-grade corporate bonds. The Target Index excludes bonds with maturities of less than 1 year and with less than $750 million outstanding and is screened for certain ESG criteria by the Index Provider. Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in the bonds that make up the Target Index. The Target Index excludes the bonds of companies that the Index Provider determines engage in (which may include manufacturing, owning, and operating), have a specified level of involvement in, and/or derive threshold amounts of revenue from certain activities or business segments related to the following: adult entertainment, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, nuclear weapons, controversial weapons, conventional weapons, civilian firearms, nuclear power, and thermal coal, oil, or gas. The level or type of involvement in, or amount of revenue earned from, certain activities or business segments that lead to exclusion by the Index Provider can vary from one activity or business segment to another. The Target Index also excludes the bonds of any company that, as determined by the Index Provider, does not meet certain standards defined by the Index Provider with respect to an ESG controversies assessment (which measures a companys involvement in major ESG controversies and how well the company adheres to international norms and principles) or does not have an ESG controversies assessment score. If MSCI, the Index Providers data source, has insufficient or no data available to adequately assess a particular issuer relative to the Target Indexs ESG criteria, bonds of such issuer may be excluded from the Target Index until they are determined to be eligible by MSCI. Additionally, the Target Index excludes bonds of companies that fail to have at least one woman on their board of directors and companies for which the Index Provider does not have board diversity data. The Fund invests by sampling the Target Index, meaning that it holds a range of securities that, in the aggregate, approximates the full Target Index in terms of key risk factors and other characteristics. The Fund seeks to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity consistent with that of the Target Index.
Top holdings
As of Feb. 28, 2026 · N-PORT| Security | Ticker | Value | % of fund |
|---|---|---|---|
| US TREASURY N/B | — | $4.25M | 0.40% |
| BANK OF AMER CRP | — | $2.17M | 0.20% |
| AMAZON.COM INC | — | $1.86M | 0.17% |
| T-MOBILE USA INC | — | $1.85M | 0.17% |
| CVS HEALTH CORP | — | $1.78M | 0.17% |
| BANK OF AMER CRP | — | $1.61M | 0.15% |
| VERIZON COMM INC | — | $1.60M | 0.15% |
| PFIZER INVSTMNT | — | $1.59M | 0.15% |
| META PLATFORMS | — | $1.54M | 0.14% |
| GOLDMAN SACHS GP | — | $1.51M | 0.14% |
Portfolio moves
Nov 30, 2025 → Feb 28, 2026How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.
Similar funds
Funds whose portfolios most overlap this one, by weight| Fund | Overlap | Net exp. |
|---|---|---|
| iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF · LQD | 55% | 0.14% |
| iShares Aaa - A Rated Corporate Bond ETF · QLTA | 47% | 0.15% |
| iShares U.S. Intermediate Credit Bond Index Fund | 41% | 0.12% |
Advisers
| Firm | Role |
|---|---|
| The Vanguard Group, Inc. | Adviser |
Footnotes
- Expense ratio as of December 19, 2025, from the fund's prospectus.
- Net assets and holdings count as of February 28, 2026, from the fund's N-PORT filing.
- Total return for calendar year 2025, before tax and after fund expenses. Computed by compounding the twelve monthly total returns the fund reported in its SEC N-PORT filings for 2025 (the latest prospectus does not yet chart this year).
Machine-readable: JSON · Markdown. Programmatic access via the agent surface.