Vanguard Equity Income Fund (VEIPX)

Vanguard Equity Income fund (VEIPX) is a top stock mutual fund. This large value equity fund has high dividend yield.

Vanguard is known with its index mutual funds. These index funds provide low cost mutual fund for investors. It also offers several actively managed mutual funds such as Vanguard Wellington fund, Vanguard Wellesley fund, Vanguard Windsor II, and more. Another popular and top rated actively managed stock fund is Vanguard Equity Income fund. This equity fund is recognized as the top performer mutual fund of 2011.

Vanguard Equity Income (VEIPX)

This Vanguard Equity Income fund invests in common stocks of medium-sized and large companies which pay above-average dividend income level and are considered to have the potential for capital appreciation. In addition, the fund’s advisors typically look for companies which commit to paying dividends consistently. The fund invests most of assets (>80%) in stocks or equity securities.

VEIPX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: 03/21/1988
• Ticker Symbol: VEIPX
• CUSIP: 921921102
• Beta (3yr): 0.95
• Rank in category (YTD): 4%
• Category: Large Value
• Yield: 2.26%
• Net Assets: $ 27.8 Billion
• Sales Load: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.26%
• Capital Gains: N/A
• Number of Years Up: 16 years
• Number of Years Down: 6 years

Updated on May 2017

Vanguard Equity Income

Since December 2003, James P Stetler is the co-fund’s manager from Vanguard Quantitative Equity Group. Another co-fund’s Manager is W. Michael Reckmeyer, III from Wellington Management Company. Reckmeyer has managed this fund since 2007. This Top U.S. stock fund has an expense ratio of 0.31%. The total net assets are $6.24 Billion. The dividend yield of this equity fund is 2.77%. There is no 12b1 fee and no front-end sales load. The annual turnover rate is 60%.

The minimum balance to invest in this Vanguard fund is $3,000 for brokerage account and $3,000 for IRA account. For additional information, please check with your brokerage. The minimum subsequent investment for both accounts is $100. This large value stock fund can be purchased from 87 brokerages, include Vanguard Brokerage Services, JP Morgan, Scottrade Load, Schwab Retail, Fistrade, etc. Another class of this Top Vanguard fund is Admiral Shares (Ticker: VEIRX). The CUSIP number for the admiral shares is 921921300.

Regarding the performance, this best US domestic stock fund has returned 11.09% over the past 1 year, 14.15% over the past 3 year, and 1.95% over the past 5 year. The best 1 year returned was achieved in 1997 with 31.17% return. The worst returned was occurred in 2008 with -30.95% return. This equity fund is rated with 5 star rating and Silver rating by Morningstar.

• Year 2017: 4.83% (YTD)
• Year 2016: 14.70%
• Year 2015: 0.77%
• Year 2014: 11.29%
• Year 2013: 30.07%

As of December 2011, the fund's top 6 equity sectors are Consumer Staples (17.90%), Energy (14.4%), Industrials (14.1%), Health Care (12.6%), Financials (9%) and Information Technology (9%).

The top 10 largest stocks in its holdings are: Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp, Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T Inc, Merck & Co Inc, Philip Morris International Inc, Microsoft Corp, Intel Corp, and General Electric Co. The fund has 148 stocks in its holdings. The median market cap is $63.5 billion. There are 5.1% of assets in foreign holdings.

Per the fund’s prospectus, the investment risks are stock market risk, investment style risk, management risk, etc. The fund’s benchmarks are Spliced Equity Income Index and Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index.

Goods:

• It has high dividend yield and is part of value fund
• Good long term track record

Bads:

• none

Disclosure: No Position

Other Large Value equity funds:

• BlackRock Equity Dividend Inv A (MDDVX)
• Auxier Focus Investor Class (AUXFX)

This Vanguard Equity Income Fund (VEIPX) is part of Kiplinger's 25 best mutual funds.