VOT had an inception date of 08/17/06, so it has a track record. The expense ratio, as with most Vanguard funds, is a modest 0.07% and the dividend yield is about 0.70%. The fund has 170 holdings, providing good diversification.
According to ETF.COM, “VOT provides broad exposure to U.S. mid-cap growth stocks at a rock bottom price. The fund changed midcap growth indexes in April 2013 from FTSE to CRSP. Its current index chooses growth companies based on their historical earnings and sales growth rates, current internal growth rates, and forecasted earnings growth rates. VOT’s fits our benchmark relatively well, though it tilts toward slightly larger, higher-growth companies. Its miniscule expense ratio, tight tracking and impressive liquidity all add up to extremely low all-in costs.”
Competing ETF’s include: IWP, JKH, FNY, IJK and MDYG. However, in terms of total assets, VOT is probably the biggest mid cap growth ETF. VOT has 13.14B in assets, while IWP has 10.19B. Don’t expect a lot of dividends from mid-cap and small-cap funds. The focus is generally on growth. However, as a dividend growth investor, I would pick VOT over IWP. IWP has a slightly better dividend yield, but it also has a much higher expense ratio: 0.25%
So I vote for VOT, pun intended.
Note: Mid-cap stocks are generally defined as shares of companies with market capitalizations of between $1 billion and $15 billion. Approximately 1,500 of the stocks within the U.S. equity markets are mid-cap stocks. There are about 11,200 U.S. stocks in all and nearly 9,500 are small- or micro-cap issues.
Know Your Flocks & Herds 