Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (VDC)

The Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (VDC) started trading in late January 2004. It tracks the MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Staples Index, minus expenses and fees. The ETF's approach to tracking the index is full replication. That is, VDC attempts to own every stock in the index whenever possible.

The MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Staples Index is a subset of the MSCI US Investable Market 2500 Index, and as its name suggests, has consumer staples stocks as components. There are 107 stocks in the index of the following industries and weightings:

Beverages 21.8%
Food 20.31%
Household Products 22.47%
Personal Products 3.84%
Staples Retail 25.58%
Tobacco 6%


The ETF is passively managed, with an expense ratio of 0.22%. The fund's turnover rate, as of August 2007 is 12%.

Although this is subject to change, the ETF pays an annual dividend in December. The dividend is irregular, and past distributions have ranged from $0.96 a share to $1.159 a share.

As of May 2008, the Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF held 109 stocks (note that this is 2 more than the benchmark index), which had a median market cap of $49.4 billion (the benchmark's median market cap was $63.4 billion).

The ETF's holdings are listed below.