Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) tracks the S&P 500 Index, providing broad exposure to 500 of the largest U.S. publicly traded companies. It is one of the world’s largest and most cost-efficient ETFs.
Key Facts
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Ticker | VOO |
| Issuer | Vanguard |
| Inception Date | September 7, 2010 |
| Expense Ratio | 0.03% |
| Benchmark | S&P 500 Index |
| Asset Class | U.S. Large-Cap Equity |
| AUM | ~$995.5B |
| Dividend Frequency | Quarterly |
| Number of Holdings | 505 |
| P/E Ratio | 28.1x |
| Median Market Cap | $474.5B |
| Structure | Open-End ETF |
Latest Market Data
| Metric | Current value |
|---|
| Product type | ETF |
| ETF market price (USD) | $707.54 |
| Observation date | 2026-10-02 (US Eastern Time) |
| 52-week range (USD) | $578.46 – $716.39 |
| Adjusted-close return over retrieved year | +16.32% |
| Annualised observed return | +16.38% |
| Annualised daily volatility | 12.97% |
| History window | 2025-10-03 to 2026-10-02 |
| Daily observations | 251 |
Source: Yahoo Finance, retrieved 2026-10-05. ETF market prices differ from NAV. Return is computed from adjusted closes; annualisation uses 365.25 divided by elapsed calendar days. Volatility is the sample standard deviation of daily simple adjusted-close returns multiplied by √252. These are historical observations, not forecast returns. Key facts, holdings, sector weights and other older analysis retain their original source dates and were not refreshed by this market-data update.
Historical Annual Returns
| Year | Return (%) |
|---|
| 2026 | +9.08% |
| 2025 | +17.82% |
| 2024 | +24.98% |
| 2023 | +26.32% |
| 2022 | -18.17% |
| 2021 | +28.79% |
| 2020 | +18.32% |
| 2019 | +31.36% |
| 2018 | -4.50% |
| 2017 | +21.77% |
| 2016 | +12.17% |
| 2015 | +1.33% |
| 2014 | +12.93% |
| 2013 | +32.39% |
| 2012 | +15.99% |
| 2011 | +1.90% |
Trailing Period Returns (CAGR)
| Period | Annualised Return |
|---|
| 1 Year | +24.38% |
| 3 Year | +21.21% |
| 5 Year | +13.39% |
| 10 Year | +15.48% |
| Since Inception (2010) | +14.89% |
Risk Metrics
| Metric | Value |
|---|
| Beta (vs. S&P 500) | 1.00 |
| Standard Deviation (5-Year) | ~16.9% |
| Sharpe Ratio (5-Year) | ~0.57 |
| Max Drawdown (since 2010) | -34.0% (Mar 2020) |
| R-Squared | ~1.00 |
Top 10 Holdings (as of 05/31/2026)
| Rank | Company | Ticker | Weight (%) |
|---|
| 1 | NVIDIA Corp. | NVDA | 7.89% |
| 2 | Apple Inc. | AAPL | 7.05% |
| 3 | Microsoft Corp. | MSFT | 5.14% |
| 4 | Amazon.com Inc. | AMZN | 4.07% |
| 5 | Alphabet Inc. (Class A) | GOOGL | 3.41% |
| 6 | Broadcom Inc. | AVGO | 3.26% |
| 7 | Alphabet Inc. (Class C) | GOOG | 2.71% |
| 8 | Meta Platforms | META | 2.13% |
| 9 | Tesla Inc. | TSLA | 1.89% |
| 10 | Micron Technology Inc. | MU | 1.68% |
Sector Allocation
| Sector | Weight |
|---|
| Technology | 39.1% |
| Financial Services | 10.9% |
| Communication Services | 10.7% |
| Consumer Cyclical | 9.9% |
| Health Care | 8.3% |
| Industrials | 7.8% |
| Consumer Defensive | 4.5% |
| Energy | 3.1% |
| Utilities | 2.1% |
| Real Estate | 1.8% |
Price History (Recent 12 Months)
Latest available adjusted close in each month; the current month is partial.
| Observation date | Adjusted close (USD) | Return since prior row |
|---|
| 2025-11-28 | $621.25 | — |
| 2025-12-31 | $621.74 | +0.08% |
| 2026-01-30 | $630.75 | +1.45% |
| 2026-02-27 | $625.62 | -0.81% |
| 2026-03-31 | $594.29 | -5.01% |
| 2026-04-30 | $656.97 | +10.55% |
| 2026-05-29 | $691.69 | +5.28% |
| 2026-06-30 | $685.05 | -0.96% |
| 2026-07-31 | $684.89 | -0.02% |
| 2026-08-31 | $703.08 | +2.66% |
| 2026-09-30 | $700.86 | -0.32% |
| 2026-10-02 | $707.54 | +0.95% |
Dividend History (Last 4 Quarters)
Latest four distributions reported in the retrieved daily series; dates are ex-dividend dates.
| Ex-dividend date | USD per share |
|---|
| 2026-09-28 | $1.8230 |
| 2026-06-26 | $1.9620 |
| 2026-03-27 | $1.8720 |
| 2025-12-22 | $1.7710 |
Source: Yahoo Finance, retrieved 2026-10-05.
Investment Thesis
Strengths
- Ultra-low cost: 0.03% expense ratio — one of the lowest among comparable S&P 500 ETFs.
- Extreme diversification: 500 holdings across all major U.S. sectors.
- Proven track record: ~14.9% CAGR since inception (2010–2026).
- High liquidity: Millions of shares traded daily with tight bid-ask spreads.
- Tax efficiency: Vanguard’s ETF structure minimises capital gains distributions.
- Market benchmark: Outperforms ~85% of actively managed large-cap U.S. funds over 10+ years (S&P SPIVA data).
Risks
- Market risk: Fully correlated with U.S. large-cap equities; no downside protection.
- Tech concentration: Technology sector exceeds 31%, creating sector concentration risk.
- Currency risk for non-USD investors: No hedging against USD depreciation.
- Valuation risk: Cyclically adjusted P/E (CAPE) remains elevated; potential for mean reversion.
- No active management: Cannot adapt to changing market conditions or avoid overvalued stocks.
Comparison vs. Peers
| ETF | Ticker | Expense Ratio | AUM | 5-Year CAGR |
|---|
| Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | VOO | 0.03% | ~$1701.5B | +13.39% |
| iShares Core S&P 500 | IVV | 0.03% | $570B | N/A |
| SPDR S&P 500 ETF | SPY | 0.0945% | $560B | N/A |
| Invesco QQQ (Nasdaq-100) | QQQ | 0.20% | $310B | N/A |
| Vanguard Total Stock Market | VTI | 0.03% | $440B | N/A |
Recommendation
| Investor Profile | Recommendation |
|---|
| Long-term (10+ year horizon) | Strong Buy — core portfolio holding |
| Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) | Buy — systematic accumulation |
| Short-term traders | Neutral — use technical levels for timing |
| Income-focused investors | Consider alternatives — yield is low; prefer VYM or SCHD |
Data sourced from Yahoo Finance via scripts/fetch_voo_etf.py. Last updated: 2026-06-13.