ETF Evaluator: Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF (VCLT) Follow This ETF

Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF Overview

Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF (VCLT) is a passively managed Taxable Bond Long-Term Bond exchange-traded fund (ETF). Vanguard launched the ETF in 2009.

The investment seeks to track the performance of a market-weighted corporate bond index with a long-term dollar-weighted average maturity. The fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg U.S. 10+ Year Corporate Bond Index. This index includes U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable securities issued by U.S. and non-U.S. industrial, utility, and financial companies, with maturities greater than 10 years. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the fund's assets will be invested in bonds included in the index.

About Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF (VCLT)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 8.82 years: Joshua Barrickman (2009) and Jake Riley (2025). Management tenure is more important for actively managed ETFs than passive index ETFs.

The ETF has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Float Adj TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg US Corporate 10+ Yr TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF has 2777 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 2.7% 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.

Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond ETF group. Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF has 10.4% 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% (89.1% domestic bond, 10.4% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF has 0.5% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $9 billion in total assets, which is above the $1 billion average for the Long-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.

VCLT 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 Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF expense ratio is low compared to funds in the Long-Term Bond category. Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF has an expense ratio of 0.03%, which is 83% 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. Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF has a portfolio turnover rate of 44%, which indicates that it holds its assets around / 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 54% for the Long-Term Bond category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF returned 0.3%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Long-Term Bond category had an average return of 0.3%. 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.

Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF has a trailing yield of 5.52%, which is above the 4.99% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly and its capital gains annually.

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.

Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bd ETF Grades

Year to date, the ETF has returned 1.4%, 0.1 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 4.8% over the past year (grade of C), 4.1% over the past three years (grade of D) and -2.3% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 2.1% per year over the past 10 years (grade of B).

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