VYM ETF Price Near $148 High As NYSEARCA:VYM Draws $84B Into High-Dividend Value

NYSEARCA:VYM High Dividend Yield ETF – Position At $148 In A Selective Market

Current Price Yield And Trading Range For NYSEARCA:VYM

NYSEARCA:VYM trades around $148.36, down $0.24 (-0.16%) on the day, with a day range of $148.17–$149.23 and a 52-week range of $112.10–$149.23. The fund sits almost pinned to its one-year high, which matters for forward return expectations. Fund AUM is about $84.52B, with class AUM near $71.44B, so liquidity and scale are not issues. The stated trailing yield is around 2.36%, and based on index yield minus the 0.06% expense ratio, a forward yield near 2.48% is a fair working number. You are not buying a 4–5% income product; you are buying a large-cap high-dividend blend that throws off roughly 2.4–2.5% in cash and the rest via capital appreciation.

Index Design Breadth And Turnover Inside NYSEARCA:VYM

The benchmark for VYM ETF is the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index, built from the FTSE US All Cap Index. Non-payers and REITs are removed, a forward dividend yield screen is applied, and constituents are weighted by free-float market cap. That structure naturally tilts the portfolio toward large and mid-cap dividend franchises rather than deep value small caps. The fund holds 500+ names, with the top ten accounting for roughly 25–30% of assets, which keeps single-name risk contained. Turnover has been consistently low, in the 8–13% range for each of the last five years, despite huge shifts in macro, inflation and AI narratives. That low-churn profile signals a truly passive design that does not attempt tactical factor timing and is a core reason why performance sits around the middle of the large-cap value pack most years.

Sector Mix Changes And Leadership Shifts For VYM ETF

Sector allocation has shifted meaningfully since mid-2025. Financials moved up to about 22.3% weight, driven by larger positions in diversified banks such as JPMorgan and Bank of America after credit fears failed to show up in their headline numbers. Technology climbed to roughly 15.6%, not through speculative, zero-yield AI names but through cash-generative dividend payers like Broadcom and Cisco, which benefited from AI-linked reratings while still paying distributions. Energy stayed roughly neutral after the 2022 inflation windfall normalised, while defensives such as staples and utilities diluted slightly but retained their role as volatility dampers. The net result is a portfolio more tilted to “earnings-validated” leaders in tech and financials, with enough defensives to keep the drawdown profile controlled.

Performance Track Record Versus SPY And Large Cap Value Peers

From 2016 to 2025, VYM delivered about 11.32% annualised total return, ranking 7th of 16 in a filtered large-cap value peer set with market caps between $100–500B, yields above 2% and at least ten years of history. The Q1 2020 maximum drawdown was about -23.98%, very much in line with peers and markedly better than some more aggressive value funds that dropped 30%+. Since the June 2025 “Buy” call, VYM ETF is up roughly 15% on a total return basis, matching or slightly beating growth heavy indices like SPY over that period, which is atypical for this factor. That spike was helped by broadening market participation, a rerating of dividend tech, and stabilising financials. Year-to-date 2026, VYM is up around 3.5%+, versus roughly 7.1% for SCHD and 2.0% for SPY, fuelling talk of a value rotation even though earnings surprise data still clearly favours the mega-cap growth complex.

Valuation Earnings Growth And Profitability Profile For NYSEARCA:VYM

On current fundamentals NYSEARCA:VYM sits near the centre of the value cohort. Weighted three-year EPS growth across constituents is roughly 5% per year, with forward twelve-month consensus growth around 9.8%. Weighted trailing P E stands near 20.5x, and forward P E near 17.3x, which is one to two turns cheaper than DGRO and MGV, broadly similar to VTV, and about two turns more expensive than SCHD. Versus SPY, which has delivered close to 15.3% three-year EPS growth and trades richer, you are explicitly swapping some growth for lower beta and a higher income stream. On quality metrics VYM ETF scores around the peer average, with approximate EBIT margin of 22.6%, net margin of 17.8%, ROA of 6.8%, ROE of 22% and ROTC of 11.2%, well below the profitability of the mega-cap growth leaders but comfortably above weak balance sheet names.

Dividend Engine Payout Sustainability And Yield Tradeoffs

At a unit price of around $148.36 and an annualised distribution of roughly $3.50 per share, the trailing yield sits near 2.36%, while a forward yield around 2.48% is consistent with index data minus the 0.06% fee drag. Because portfolio turnover for VYM ETF is low, dividend growth is predominantly organic, driven by underlying companies raising payouts rather than by the index frequently rotating into higher headline yield names. Over the last three years, aggregate earnings grew by about 4.95% per year while dividends also advanced at mid single digit rates, keeping payout ratios in a sensible band and supporting a 15-year dividend growth streak. Contrast that with SCHD, where constituent earnings fell by around 7.38% annually while dividends still grew close to 6.8%, a mismatch that has translated into sluggish share price performance. VYM’s more balanced earnings and dividend profile reduces the risk of the market “calling the bluff” on the income story.

Risk Profile Beta And Drawdown Behaviour Of VYM ETF

Five-year beta for NYSEARCA:VYM is about 0.83, nearly identical to DGRO, MGV and VTV, and materially below SPY, whose effective beta is now above 1.1 once you aggregate individual holdings. You are clearly stepping down a risk notch relative to broad US large caps. The COVID shock drawdown of approximately -24% is the right anchor for expectations: VYM will not insulate you from systemic equity crashes, but it generally avoids the deeper -30% to -35% hits seen in more concentrated or lower quality vehicles. Upside sensitivity is equally moderated. In hard AI-driven melt-ups led by names like NVDA with betas above 2.0, VYM will lag because its exposure is capped and focused on mature cash payers rather than hyper-growth stories.

Positioning Versus DGRO VTV MGV And SCHD In The Dividend Value Space

Within the dividend and large cap value cluster, VYM ETF sits as the balanced, middle-of-the-road option. DGRO, MGV and VTV all show slightly better long-term total and risk-adjusted returns, with marginally higher quality scores, but offer about 0.40% less starting yield than VYM. SCHD offers the highest yield and a heavier tilt to energy (~21%) and consumer staples (~18%), but only around 8% in technology, a mix that worked in 2022 but hurt badly from 2023 through 2025, when its annualised return dropped to roughly 4.2% driven almost entirely by dividends. VYM keeps around 15–16% in tech and more balanced energy exposure, which has let it participate in growth rallies without giving up its value and dividend identity. If the goal is maximum long-run total return inside this cluster, DGRO or VTV deserve a slight edge; if the goal is simple, scalable high-dividend exposure with minimal complexity and a yield closer to 2.5%, VYM is the cleaner core building block.

Macro Regime Shift And Implications For NYSEARCA:VYM Forward Returns

Several rate cuts since mid-2025 have moved the macro regime from “high uncertainty” to “still tight but clearer”. Growth visibility has improved modestly, AI and narrative tech stocks are being forced to prove monetisation, and dispersion has increased even inside leadership sectors. In that environment NYSEARCA:VYM no longer functions purely as a macro hedge; it behaves as a filter that keeps migrating capital toward companies that can meet the market’s earnings test while still paying and growing dividends. The higher weight in diversified banks now looks like a carry anchor trade rather than a pure rates call, and the increased exposure to dividend tech such as Broadcom and Cisco looks like a quality overlay on top of the AI theme. The strong +15% run from June 2025 to early 2026 has already pulled some returns forward, so expecting that pace to persist from a starting price near $148–$149 is unrealistic.

Clear Verdict On NYSEARCA:VYM At 148 Dollars Buy Sell Or Hold

At roughly $148.36, sitting just under a $149.23 one-year high, with a 2.36–2.48% yield, forward P E near 17.3x, three-year EPS growth around 5% and forward growth just under 10%, NYSEARCA:VYM is fairly valued. It is not cheap enough for an aggressive Buy call and not structurally weak enough to justify a Sell. Versus SPY, you knowingly give up growth in exchange for lower beta and a higher income stream. Versus DGRO / VTV / MGV, you accept slightly weaker quality metrics in return for a marginally higher starting yield and a simpler, broader construction. The correct stance at this level is firm Hold with a bias to accumulate on pullbacks, not chasing fresh money at the highs. For a dividend-oriented asset allocation, VYM ETF remains a solid core income anchor, but new allocations should wait for better entry points if you want both yield and valuation working in your favour rather than leaning entirely on future multiple expansion.

That's TradingNEWS