SCHG ETF Near $33 High As AI Giants Drive 19% 2025 Rally

Nysearca:Schg Premium Growth Engine Near The Top Of Its Range

Structure And Mandate Of Nysearca:Schg

NYSEARCA:SCHG finishes 2025 at $32.62, down 0.79% on the last session, just under its $33.75 52 week high and far above the $21.38 low. The fund runs roughly $53–54 billion in assets with an ultra low 0.04% expense ratio, pays around $0.12 a year in distributions for a yield near 0.36%, and is built as a core large cap growth allocation rather than a trading vehicle. The mandate is to track the Dow Jones U.S. Large Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index, a slice of about 750 U.S. large caps screened on projected P/E, three to five year operating EPS growth, dividend yield, price to book, five year sales growth and long term EPS growth. Securities are float market cap weighted with a 24% single name cap and 48% aggregate cap on positions above 4.5%, rebalanced quarterly with an annual style reconstitution, which keeps SCHG tightly aligned with the U.S. mega cap growth complex.

Portfolio Concentration And Sector Positioning In Nysearca:Schg

The portfolio is deliberately concentrated at the top. The ten largest holdings account for roughly 58–58.5% of assets, with Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft together above 30.8% of the fund. Weighted average market cap is around $1.9 trillion, which makes SCHG effectively an AI driven mega cap growth basket rather than a broad growth sampler. Sector allocation is dominated by Technology and Communication Services at about 61% combined, slightly lower than ultra concentrated growth trackers like VUG, SPYG and QQQ, and close to the 62% in GARP. There is still exposure in Financials and other cyclicals, and that extra diversification has mattered in past selloffs when pure tech structures behaved more violently.

Growth And Quality Profile Versus Value Counterparts

On fundamentals NYSEARCA:SCHG is firmly at the aggressive end of the style box. Versus the Schwab U.S. Large Cap Value fund, three year EPS CAGR sits around 22.34% for SCHG against roughly 4.24% on the value side, while price to book stands near 9.73x versus 2.99x. Underlying holdings have delivered about 30% five year EPS growth with return on equity in the 27% range, which fully justifies a premium growth label. The gap relative to value has widened over time: the three year EPS growth advantage was around 11 percentage points in mid 2024, and is now close to 20 points, showing how far the market has leaned into the growth and quality trade embedded in SCHG.

Long Term Performance Track Record Of Nysearca:Schg

For 2025 through late December, NYSEARCA:SCHG produced about 19.23% total return, respectable but not the absolute top of the growth category in a year when some momentum heavy strategies did even better. Over the more relevant March 2022 to November 2025 window, which includes the 2022 bear market and the recovery, SCHG delivered roughly 86.63% total return, second only to GARP at about 95.05% and ahead of QQQ, VUG, SPYG and CGGR, all clustered between the mid 70% and low 80% area. From January 2010 to late 2025, annualized return is around 16.6%, beating VUG by roughly 0.4 percentage points a year and SPYG by about 0.6 points, which compounds into a material edge over fifteen plus years. QQQ still shows the best long term record on paper, but that history is distorted by a much heavier Technology weight before the 2023 special rebalance, when tech was about 61.65% of the Nasdaq 100, roughly 9 percentage points above the current level. Since that rebalance QQQ has lagged every main peer, so its old numbers overstate what investors should expect now.

Drawdown Behaviour And Quality Factor Evidence

Risk and recovery behaviour illustrate why quality matters for NYSEARCA:SCHG. Looking at the five largest drawdowns since inception, average recovery time from trough back to prior high has been roughly 5.4 months for SCHG, compared with around 7.8 months for the Schwab value counterpart. Total time from peak through drawdown and back to a new high averages about 10.2 months for SCHG versus 12.2 months for value. So even though headline volatility looks higher for growth, the higher quality cash flow and balance sheet profile of the holdings translates into faster recoveries. That is consistent with about four decades of global factor data where high quality stocks have delivered persistent positive excess returns relative to broad indices. In practice SCHG is not just a growth vehicle; it packages both growth and quality factors, which explains why it behaves more resiliently than a plain valuation based value strategy.

Valuation Multiples And Earnings Expectations For Nysearca:Schg

The problem for new money is not the business quality, it is the entry multiple. On current numbers NYSEARCA:SCHG trades at around 31.85x forward earnings and roughly 35.91x trailing earnings, with consensus one year EPS growth expectations above 24%. The broader S&P 500 is priced for about 18.40% EPS growth over the next year, which would already be the fourth highest reading since 2009, behind 2010 at 47.33%, 2018 at 21.75% and 2021 at 70.14% in the post COVID rebound. Earlier work on the holdings had the forward P/E near 23.86x versus about 22.2x in April 2025 and placed the aggregate multiple at roughly the 74th percentile of its last decade. That is classic premium territory, not bubble territory, but far from cheap. With eleven consecutive quarters of 5–9% upside earnings surprises across the U.S. large cap universe, a slowdown in beats or a modest miss is enough to trigger multiple compression similar to 2022, when S&P 500 P/E fell roughly 15% and Technology compressed about 26% while the businesses themselves kept growing.

Peer Comparison And Relative Positioning Around Nysearca:Schg

Against other large cap growth vehicles, NYSEARCA:SCHG sits in the middle of the valuation pack, but still firmly on the expensive side. Using trailing numbers, the modified PEG ratio for SCHG is about 1.61x with 35.91x trailing P/E over 22.34% three year EPS growth. On forward metrics, with 31.85x P/E and roughly 24.12% one year EPS growth, the forward PEG is near 1.32x. VUG and SPYG sit in a similar band, while QQQ is slightly cheaper on forward P/E but with lower trailing growth, and quality tilted funds like GARP and CGGR offer forward growth in the 22–26% range at lower P/Es in the high 20s, putting their forward PEGs closer to 1.06x–1.15x. That gives GARP and CGGR slightly better protection if the market decides to re rate high multiple growth lower. At the same time SCHG has a better long term risk adjusted record than value trackers and has outperformed VUG and SPYG over the full available history, which keeps it firmly in the top tier of large cap growth solutions despite the current premium.

Clear Verdict On Nysearca:Schg For 2026

At $32.62 with a $32.61–$32.90 daily range, a $33.75 year high and a $21.38 year low, NYSEARCA:SCHG is trading within a few percent of the top of its band after a roughly 19.23% total return year and a three year surge that pushed valuation metrics to around the 74th percentile of their decade range. The underlying book of companies is exceptionally strong, with 27% ROE, about 30% five year EPS growth and forward earnings expected to grow north of 20%, and the fund’s long run annualized return of about 16.6% since 2010 is elite for a low fee, rules based product. For existing holders using NYSEARCA:SCHG as a core growth and quality allocation with a multi year horizon, the case to hold remains intact and the faster recovery profile supports staying invested through volatility. For fresh capital, the skew at current levels is not attractive: you are paying a full premium for very optimistic growth expectations with limited margin for disappointment. Based on the data, SCHG is a Hold around $32–33, becomes a Buy only if price corrects roughly 7% or more back toward or below the $30 zone where the implied P/E percentile drifts back toward the 60th percentile, and only shifts toward Sell for investors who need to actively cut exposure to expensive U.S. mega cap growth rather than run a long horizon growth and quality strategy.

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