ETF Evaluator: Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF (SCHJ) Follow This ETF

Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF Overview

Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF (SCHJ) is a passively managed Taxable Bond Short-Term Bond exchange-traded fund (ETF). Schwab ETFs launched the ETF in 2019.

The investment seeks to track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Bloomberg U.S. 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index. To pursue its goal, the fund generally invests in securities that are included in the index. The index measures the performance of U.S. investment grade, taxable corporate bonds with maturities greater than or equal to one year and less than five years that have $300 million or more of outstanding face value. It is the fund's policy that under normal circumstances it will invest at least 90% of its net assets in securities included in the index.

About Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF (SCHJ)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 4.96 years: Steven Hung (2019), Olga Kislova (2025) and Matthew Hastings (2019). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg USD Corp Bd 1-5 Yr TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF has 3273 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 1.7% of the ETF’s assets. The ETF meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The ETF is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond ETF group. Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF has 18.2% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0% There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 99.5% (81.3% domestic bond, 18.2% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF has 0.5% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $848 million in total assets, which is below the $3 billion average for the Short-Term Bond category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

SCHJ Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF expense ratio is low compared to funds in the Short-Term Bond category. Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF has an expense ratio of 0.03%, which is 89% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 22%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 77% for the Short-Term Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF returned -0.1%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Short-Term Bond category had an average return of -0.1%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all ETFs in that category.

Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF has a trailing yield of 4.50%, which is below the 4.54% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 0.8%, 0.2 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 3.6% over the past year (grade of C), 5.4% over the past three years (grade of B) and 2.3% per year over the past five years (grade of C).

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