{
  "id": 2169802,
  "title": "VYM Is Beating the S&P 500 With a 17% Year-to-Date Return by Owning What Wall Street Won’t",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/vym-is-beating-the-s-p-500-with-a-17-year-to-date-return-by-owning",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-20T15:40:27.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Finance",
    "slug": "yahoo-finance",
    "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/vym-beating-p-500-17-154027118.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "VYM, an exchange-traded fund, is outperforming the S&P 500 with a 17% return so far this year, compared to the index's 13%. The fund achieves this by investing in mature dividend-paying companies with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of just 16, which is lower than the S&P 500's 23. This lower valuation is due to the fund excluding companies with below-average payouts and focusing on mature, cash-generative businesses that tend to trade at lower valuations.\n\nVanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) has been successful in this strategy, as most of its top holdings carry 50-plus-year dividend growth streaks, including companies like Broadcom (AVGO), Exxon (XOM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AbbVie (ABBV), Chevron (CVX), JPMorgan (JPM), and Coca-Cola (KO). The fund's current holdings are composed of companies with cheaper valuations, which is why it's currently beating the broader market.\n\nHowever, the 2026 lead of VYM is not as impressive when compared to the S&P 500 over a decade. While VYM returned 207% in that time frame, the S&P 500 returned 252%. This gap can be attributed to the fact that the fund did not include AI leaders like Nvidia and Meta, which have significantly driven the broad market's growth over the past decade.\n\nInvestors considering VYM should be aware that it may underperform if growth resumes leading the market and that it is best suited for investors who want US large-cap exposure at a lower cost than owning the most expensive quarter of the market. Additionally, VYM's quarterly distributions are irregular, and its yield is well below that of the 10-year Treasury. However, the fund's expense ratio has been cut to just 4 basis points, which means investors essentially keep all the valuation reversion, making it an attractive option for those seeking exposure to the cheapest half of the US large-cap market.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}