Skip to main content

ETF comparison

VHT vs XLV

Both Healthcare.

Vanguard Health Care Index Fund ETF Shares · State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF

Holdings overlap

Weighted by ISIN/CUSIP
84.6 %

59 positions appear in both funds. Buying equal dollars of VHT and XLV would leave roughly 84.6% of each dollar exposed to the same underlying securities.

VHT unmatched 15.1% Shared 84.6% XLV unmatched 15.0%

Unmatched is the part of a fund's weight the other fund doesn't match: names only it holds, plus any extra weight it puts in names both funds hold.

In VHT only
354 positions
Shared
59 positions
In XLV only
1 positions

Side by side

VHT

Vanguard Health Care Index Fund ETF Shares

Vanguard · Healthcare

84 composite / 100
Expense ratio
0.090%
Net assets
$23.73B
whole fund, 2 share classes
TTM yield
1.32%
Top-10 conc.
51.7%
XLV

State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF

State Street · Healthcare

82 composite / 100
Expense ratio
0.080%
Net assets
$49.10B
TTM yield
1.35%
Top-10 conc.
61.5%

Sub-score comparison

91
Cost
92
83
Tax efficiency
83
100
Liquidity
100
40
Concentration
26
—
Tracking quality
—
VHT sub-score XLV

Tracking quality isn't part of the composite — see what we don't score for why.

Cost difference

XLV is 1 bps cheaper than VHT. On a $100,000 position that's about $10/yr more in fees for VHT.

Fee figure is the annual expense charged on $100,000. To see how the gap compounds over a multi-decade holding period, open the cost calculator pre-filled with VHT vs XLV.

Top shared holdings

59 shared in total
# Holding In VHT In XLV Overlap
1 Eli Lilly & Co 12.87% 16.51% 12.87%
2 Johnson & Johnson 8.75% 10.64% 8.75%
3 AbbVie Inc 6.28% 7.74% 6.28%
4 Merck & Co Inc 5.06% 5.52% 5.06%
5 UnitedHealth Group Inc 4.90% 6.57% 4.90%
6 Amgen Inc 3.21% 3.40% 3.21%
7 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc 3.18% 3.24% 3.18%
8 Abbott Laboratories 2.66% 2.75% 2.66%
9 Gilead Sciences Inc 2.52% 2.73% 2.52%
10 Pfizer Inc 2.24% 2.39% 2.24%
11 Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc 1.92% 2.19% 1.92%
12 Bristol-Myers Squibb Co 1.89% 2.05% 1.89%

Only in VHT

354 total
  • Natera Inc 0.60%
  • REVOLUTION Medicines Inc 0.46%
  • Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc 0.44%
  • Illumina Inc 0.44%
  • Insmed Inc 0.36%
  • Tenet Healthcare Corp 0.32%
  • United Therapeutics Corp 0.28%
  • Guardant Health Inc 0.27%
  • Roivant Sciences Ltd 0.22%
  • Neurocrine Biosciences Inc 0.20%

Only in XLV

1 total
  • CONTRA HOLOGIC INCORPO 0.00%

Percentages are holdings overlap with the named fund.

Open VHT or XLV at a brokerage

Both funds trade commission-free at major US brokerages.

Affiliate links — opening an account through these earns PlainIndex a one-time referral. Scoring is computed before any affiliate consideration; see our methodology and funding disclosure.

Holdings overlap is the sum of min(weight_a, weight_b) over positions matched on ISIN (CUSIP fallback). Methodology: see /methodology/.

Comparing two funds doesn't endorse swapping one for the other. Tax-lot history, account type, and personal goals matter — PlainIndex publishes data and methodology, not investment advice.