Fund Evaluator:

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv Overview

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv (VDIGX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Large Blend fund. Vanguard launched the fund in 1992.

The investment seeks to provide, primarily, a growing stream of income over time and, secondarily, long-term capital appreciation and current income. The fund employs an active management approach, investing primarily in stocks that tend to offer current dividends. The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in dividend growth stocks. The fund focuses on high-quality companies that have prospects for long-term total returns as a result of their ability to grow earnings and their willingness to increase dividends over time. The fund seeks to be diversified across industry sectors.

About Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv (VDIGX)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 0.06 years: G. Thomas Levering (2026), Timothy Casaletto (2026). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: DJ US Total Stock Market TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and S&P US Dividend Growers TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has 60 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 38.2% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has 4.2% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 95.1%. There is 4.2% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has 0.7% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $35 billion in total assets, which is above the $6 billion average for the Large Blend 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.

VDIGX 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 Dividend Growth Inv expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Large Blend category. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has an expense ratio of 0.20%, which is 75% 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 Dividend Growth Inv has a portfolio turnover rate of 40%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 48% for the Large Blend category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv returned 1.3%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Large Blend category had an average return of 0.4%. 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 funds in that category.

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has a trailing yield of 1.33%, which is above the 0.56% category average.

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 Dividend Growth Inv Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 5.1%, 4.2 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 11.2% over the past year (grade of F), 8.7% over the past three years (grade of F) and 6.7% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 10.8% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

Additional Fund Information

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv is open to new investors. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv is part of the Inv share class. The minimum initial purchase is $3,000 if purchased directly from Vanguard.

The fund has a maximum front-end load of 0.00% and maximum deferred sales charge of 0.00%.

Redemption fees are paid to the fund for selling your shares or switching funds and often are reduced or eliminated over time. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has a maximum redemption charge of 0.00%.

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv does not have a 12b-1 fee. This fee is paid out of assets to cover the costs of marketing and selling fund shares as well as to cover the costs of providing shareholder services. The 12b-1 fee is reflected in the expense ratio.

The fund meets the classification of being considered a True No-Load fund.

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv Risk

A basic investment concept is that risk should be rewarded. Standard deviation measures the degree of variation in return experienced relative to the average return for a fund. It notes the recent volatility of the fund but does not explain the elements impacting the volatility. For example, portfolio concentration or exposure to foreign investments can impact the volatility and should be examined to gain an understanding of the fund.

The total risk index relates the volatility of the fund to the volatility of all funds. It can help you understand the volatility of a fund across all categories. Ratios above 1.00 indicate higher risk than average. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has a average total risk index of 0.85 because of its standard deviation of 10.5%.

The category risk index relates the volatility of a fund to the average volatility for funds in the same investment category. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has low category risk of 0.79, giving it a category risk grade of A. Letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon these relative rankings.

Beta is a risk measure that relates the fund’s volatility of returns to that of the market. The higher the beta of a fund, the higher the market risk of the fund. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has a beta of 0.66 indicating that it is 0.34% less volatile than the S&P 500. R-squared indicates what percentage of the return is explained by the market. Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv has an R-squared value of 68%, indicating that 68% of the fund’s return is explained by the return of the S&P 500.