Designed to provide broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary – Broad segment of the equity market, the Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 01/26/2004.
Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also 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 12, placing it in bottom 25%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Vanguard. It has amassed assets over $5.81 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
When considering an ETF’s total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
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 0.93%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, 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 99.20% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) accounts for about 22.94% of total assets, followed by Tesla Inc. (TSLA) and Home Depot Inc. (HD).
Performance and Risk
The ETF has lost about -16.04% and is down about -0.31% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 03/17/2022), respectively. VCR has traded between $271.48 and $355.63 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 1.27 and standard deviation of 25.40% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 295 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, VCR is a great 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) tracks StrataQuant Consumer Discretionary Index and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) tracks Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index. First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX ETF has $1.61 billion in assets, Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF has $18.52 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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