Vanguard Value ETF Outperforms Growth Twin by 11 Points in 2026
The Vanguard Value ETF (VTV) has outperformed its growth counterpart, the Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG), by over 11 percentage points year-to-date as of September 9, 2026. VTV returned 19.45% compared to VUG's 8.66%, despite both funds having identical expense ratios and covering similar large-cap U.S. stocks. The performance gap is attributed entirely to the composition difference: VTV excludes all of the Magnificent Seven stocks—NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla—which dominate VUG's holdings. This makes VTV a useful diversifier for investors already heavily exposed to these large-cap growth names through other S&P 500 funds. Over longer periods, value has regained competitiveness after lagging in the late 2010s. While VTV outperformed over one and two-year horizons, its five-year returns are slightly ahead of VUG's as well. The fund is particularly appealing to investors nearing retirement who may be unintentionally overweighted toward a few dominant stocks.
Tickers: $AAPL $MSFT $NVDA $SPY
Topics: dividend yield Magnificent Seven S&P 500 value vs growth investing Vanguard