Designed to provide broad exposure to the Healthcare - Broad segment of the equity market, the Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on January 26, 2004.
While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.
Additionally, sector ETFs offer convenient ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Healthcare - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 8, placing it in top 50%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Vanguard. It has amassed assets over $15.9 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Healthcare - Broad segment of the equity market. VHT seeks to match the performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index before fees and expenses.
The MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index is made up of stocks of U.S. companies within the health care sector.
Costs
Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.09%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.45%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Healthcare sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Eli Lilly & Co (LLY) accounts for about 10.16% of total assets, followed by Abbvie Inc (ABBV) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).
Performance and Risk
The ETF has gained about 7.33% and is down about 1.66% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 10/09/2025), respectively. VHT has traded between $236.71 and $283.3 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 0.67 and standard deviation of 13.84% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 401 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
Vanguard Health Care ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, VHT is an outstanding option for investors seeking exposure to the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.
iShares Global Healthcare ETF (IXJ) tracks S&P Global 1200 Healthcare Sector Index and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) tracks Health Care Select Sector Index. iShares Global Healthcare ETF has $4.04 billion in assets, Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF has $36.05 billion. IXJ has an expense ratio of 0.4%, and XLV charges 0.08%.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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