VMBS Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF

© 2023 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Vanguard ETFs as a share class: Vanguard ETFs® (exchange-traded funds) are a class of shares listed for trading on an exchange. The shares are available only through a broker, including Vanguard Brokerage Services®.

Vanguard ETF® Shares are not redeemable with the issuing fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. Instead, investors must buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market and hold those shares in a brokerage account. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling.

Total returns: Short-term total return information is provided only as a service. Historical performance—particularly short-term performance—is no guarantee of future returns. Price, yield, and return on an actual investment will fluctuate, and you may have a gain or loss when you sell. Average annual returns include changes in price and reinvestments of dividends and capital gains. Since-inception returns for less than 1 year and year-to-date returns aren't annualized. Index performance is provided as a benchmark but isn't illustrative of any particular investment. You can't invest in an index.

Standardized returns: To see quarterly fee-adjusted returns, refer to the Price & Performance details.

Expense ratios: Expense ratios are displayed on Overview. For investments that are less than 1 fiscal year old, expense ratios are estimated.

Risk: All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Funds that concentrate on a relatively narrow market sector face the risk of higher share-price volatility. Investments in stocks or bonds issued by non-U.S. companies are subject to risks including country/regional risk and currency risk.

Vanguard average ETF expense ratio: 0.05%. Industry average ETF expense ratio: 0.22%. All averages are asset-weighted. Industry average excludes Vanguard. Sources: Vanguard and Morningstar, Inc., as of December 31, 2023.

An investment in the fund could lose money over short or even long periods. You should expect the fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range, like the fluctuations of the overall bond market. Although Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF is listed for trading on the Nasdaq, it is possible that an active trading market may not be maintained. Trading of Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF on the Nasdaq may be halted if Nasdaq officials deem such action appropriate, if Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF is delisted from the Nasdaq, or if the activation of marketwide “circuit breakers” halts stock trading generally. The fund’s performance could be hurt by:

• Interest rate risk: The chance that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates.
• Income risk: The chance that the fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates.
• Extension risk: The chance that during periods of rising interest rates, homeowners will prepay their mortgages at slower rates. This will lengthen the duration or average life of mortgage-backed securities held by the fund and delay the fund’s ability to reinvest proceeds at higher interest rates. Extension risk is high for the fund.
• Prepayment risk: The chance that during periods of falling interest rates, homeowners will refinance their mortgages before their maturity dates, resulting in prepayment of mortgage-backed securities held by the fund. The fund would then lose any price appreciation above the mortgage’s principal and would be forced to reinvest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the fund’s income. Prepayment risk is high for the fund.
• Credit risk: The chance that the issuer of a mortgage-backed security will fail to pay interest or principal in a timely manner or that negative perceptions of the issuer’s ability to make such payments will cause the price of that bond to decline. Credit risk should be very low for the fund because it invests in securities issued by U.S. government agencies and instrumentalities, including many securities backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
• Liquidity risk: The chance that the fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.
• Index sampling risk: The chance that the securities selected for the fund, in the aggregate, will not provide investment performance matching that of the index. Index sampling risk for the fund should be low.
• Index-related risks: The fund is subject to risks associated with index investing, which include passive management risk, tracking error risk, and index provider risk. Passive management risk is the chance that the fund's use of an indexing strategy will negatively impact the fund's performance. Because the fund seeks to track the performance of its target index regardless of how that index is performing, the fund's performance may be lower than it would be if the fund were actively managed. Tracking error risk is the chance that the fund's performance will deviate from the performance of its target index. Tracking error risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or under other unusual market conditions. Index provider risk is the chance that the fund will be negatively impacted by changes or errors made by the index provider. Any gains, losses, or costs associated with or resulting from an error made by the index provider will generally be borne by the fund and, as a result, the fund's shareholders.