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Should You Invest in the Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR)?

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The Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR - Free Report) was launched on 01/26/2004, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market.

Passively managed ETFs are becoming increasingly popular with institutional as well as retail investors due to their low cost, transparency, flexibility and tax efficiency. They are excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Consumer Discretionary - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 10, placing it in bottom 38%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Vanguard. It has amassed assets over $4.08 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market. VCR seeks to match the performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index before fees and expenses.

The MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index is designed to transition in and out of securities affected by pending updates to the consumer discretionary sector.

Costs

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.10%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.97%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector--about 96.40% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) accounts for about 20.51% of total assets, followed by Tesla Inc. (TSLA - Free Report) and Home Depot Inc. (HD - Free Report) .

Performance and Risk

The ETF has gained about 11.89% and is down about -22.09% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 03/30/2023), respectively. VCR has traded between $213.95 and $312.09 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.27 and standard deviation of 26.84% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 315 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Vanguard Consumer Discretionary 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, VCR is an outstanding option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX ETF (FXD - Free Report) tracks StrataQuant Consumer Discretionary Index and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY - Free Report) tracks Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index. First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX ETF has $1.19 billion in assets, Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF has $13.90 billion. FXD has an expense ratio of 0.61% and XLY charges 0.10%.

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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