# VIG vs VYM

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF against Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF.

Canonical page: https://tickerinside.com/compare/vig-vs-vym/
Prices through 2026-09-04. VIG holdings as published 2026-07-31, VYM 2026-07-31.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, attribution to TickerInside.

## The short answer

Same issuer, same fee of 0.04%, different screens. VIG selects ten years of rising dividends and drops the highest yielders; VYM selects above-median yield. That leaves 209 companies in both, 64.7% of VIG and 63.6% of VYM, and Broadcom at the top of each.

## Key figures

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Holdings overlap by weight | 60.9% |
| Companies held by both | 209 |
| Share of VIG held in common | 64.7% |
| Share of VYM held in common | 63.6% |
| Correlation of weekly returns, 3 years | 0.94 |
| Cost per year | VIG 0.04%, VYM 0.04% |
| Return, 3 years | VIG 58.2%, VYM 67.0% |
| Worst fall, 3 years | VIG -12.7%, VYM -12.1% |
| Volatility, annualised | VIG 11.9%, VYM 12.3% |
| Positions | VIG 333, VYM 604 |

## Analysis

### One screen for growth of the dividend, one for its size

VIG's index keeps companies that have raised their dividend for ten straight years and then removes the highest-yielding quarter of them. VYM's index takes every company whose forecast yield is above the market median, REITs excluded. The two rules agree on 209 companies, 60.9%** of the pair's weight, and Broadcom, JPMorgan, Exxon, Johnson & Johnson and Cisco are the largest of them.

### The names each rule excludes

VIG's rules leave out Chevron, Philip Morris and Verizon, each of them a large VYM position. VYM's yield floor leaves out Apple, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Visa and Mastercard, which VIG holds. The unshared part is balanced in weight, 35.3% of VIG against 36.4% of VYM, but not in count: VYM has 395 companies VIG lacks, VIG 124 that VYM lacks.

### What the yield gap bought

VYM yields 2.22% against 1.48% for VIG, and over this stretch the higher payer has also returned more: 20.6% against 16.0% over one year, 67.0% against 58.2% over three, and 80.2%** against 65.7% over five. Risk was close to identical, 12.3% volatility against 11.9% and worst falls of -12.1% against -12.7%. Both charge 0.04%, and the fee gap is $0 on a $10,000 position.

### Spread across more companies, or fewer

VYM spreads 604 positions with 26.2% in its top ten; VIG has 333 and 33.6%. Their weekly returns correlated at 0.94 over three years, so owning both changes the yield of the whole and the weight of Broadcom, which both hold near the top, more than it changes the direction of travel.

## Largest positions held by both

| Ticker | Company | In VIG | In VYM | Counted as overlap |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AVGO | Broadcom Inc. | 4.65% | 7.37% | 4.65% |
| JPM | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 4.09% | 3.83% | 3.83% |
| XOM | ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. | 2.8% | 2.63% | 2.63% |
| JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | 2.68% | 2.51% | 2.51% |
| CSCO | Cisco Systems Inc. | 1.99% | 1.87% | 1.87% |
| ABBV | AbbVie Inc. | 1.92% | 1.81% | 1.81% |
| BAC | Bank of America Corp. | 1.75% | 1.67% | 1.67% |
| UNH | UnitedHealth Group Inc. | 1.63% | 1.52% | 1.52% |
| CAT | Caterpillar Inc. | 1.63% | 1.51% | 1.51% |
| KO | Coca-Cola Co. | 1.47% | 1.39% | 1.39% |
| PG | Procter & Gamble Co. | 1.46% | 1.37% | 1.37% |
| HD | Home Depot Inc. | 1.43% | 1.35% | 1.35% |
| MRK | Merck & Co. Inc. | 1.4% | 1.31% | 1.31% |
| GS | Goldman Sachs Group Inc. | 1.24% | 1.14% | 1.14% |
| TXN | Texas Instruments Inc. | 1.09% | 1.02% | 1.02% |

## Covariance and correlation

Covariance is annualised and expressed in percent squared, so the diagonal is each fund's variance. Dividing the off-diagonal by the two volatilities returns the correlation.

| | VIG | VYM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| VIG | 142 | 136.4 |
| VYM | 136.4 | 151 |

Correlation over 1, 3 and 5 years: 0.92, 0.94, 0.93.

## Method

How every figure is produced: https://tickerinside.com/how-the-numbers-are-produced/
Machine readable version of this comparison: https://tickerinside.com/api/v1/compare/vig-vs-vym.json