VHT: Vanguard Health Care ETF

What does VHT hold?#

This fund owns shares of about 410 US health care companies, such as drug makers. It holds only one part of the stock market. A few big drug companies make up a large share, so news about medicines can move its value.

It tracks the MSCI US Investable Market Health Care 25/50 Index. It had 412 holdings as of September 30, 2026, according to Vanguard.

What is the VHT expense ratio?#

VHT charges 0.09% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.09% fee comes to about $9 a year.

You never get a bill for it. The fund takes the fee out of its own value a little each day.

How has VHT done since 2004?#

From January 2004 to October 2026, VHT returned about 10.1% a year. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $89,110 at the end, with every dividend reinvested.

Prices through October 16, 2026. Figures use daily closing prices adjusted for splits, with dividends reinvested. They do not include taxes or the cost of buying and selling. Past results do not tell you what will happen next.

VHT returns by year#

What was VHT’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. VHT’s worst fall was −39.1%, from December 10, 2007 to March 5, 2009. It got back to that high on March 3, 2011.

The chart shows how far below its last high the fund was on each day. Big drops are normal for some funds. They matter because selling during a drop locks in the loss.

Which Tactfolio strategies hold VHT?#

No classic strategy holds VHT yet. You can add it to your own rules in the builder and see how they would have done.

How does VHT compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for VHT:

• XLV: State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF, 0.08% a year
• XLP: State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF, 0.08% a year
• VDC: Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF, 0.09% a year
• QUAL: iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF, 0.15% a year

See all 5 VHT alternatives, compared on the same dates as VHT.

Test VHT in your own rules#

Tactfolio is a platform where you build rules-based investing strategies, backtest them on decades of real prices, share them, and run them automatically in your own Alpaca account. Open the builder, add VHT, and see how a rule such as “hold it only above its 200-day average” would have done. Strategies run on daily prices and hold US stocks and ETFs only.

The details#

Prices come from Tactfolio’s stored daily prices for VHT. Each close is adjusted for splits, and dividends are reinvested on the day the fund pays them out. CAGR is the steady yearly return that turns the starting value into the ending value. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns.

Fund facts come from Vanguard. We checked them on October 17, 2026. Read what a backtest simulates and how to read drawdown and CAGR for more on these measures.