Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund (VEXMX)

Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund (VEXMX) is a popular equity mutual fund. It invests mainly in stock of U.S. companies especially small- and mid-cap.

Vanguard Fund

The investment aim of Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund is to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of small- and mid-capitalization stocks. This Vanguard fund is an index fund which uses the Standard & Poor’s Completion Index as its benchmark. This index is a broadly diversified index of stocks of small and mid-size U.S. companies. It invests in approximately 1,200 of the stocks in its target index, and the rest of its assets in a representative sample of the remaining stocks.

Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: 12/20/1987
• Ticker Symbol: VEXMX
• CUSIP: 922908207
• Beta (3yr): 1.22
• Rank in category (YTD): 45%
• Category: Mid-Cap Blend
• Distribution: 1.29%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.24%
• Net Assets: $ 29.6 billion
• Number of Years Up: 18 years
• Number of Years Down: 7 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 12%

Updated on July 7, 2013

As part of Vanguard fund family, this popular fund has large net assets of $29.6 billion. Donald M. Butler is the fund manager since 1997. This index fund has low expense ratio of 0.24%. The average ratio in Mid-Cap Blend category is 1.28%. The dividend yield is 1.29% and the recent distribution was in March 2013 with $0.03. Morningstar analysts rank this fund with 4-stars and Gold rating.

Based on the load adjusted returns, this Vanguard Extended Market Index fund has returned 11.96% over the past 10-year and 15.60% over the past 5-years. It has recorded 18 years of positive return, with its best return in 2003 with 43.43%. It has 14.73% YTD return as of June 12, 2013. The fund’s benchmark is Spliced Extended Market Index.

The minimum initial investment is $3,000 for brokerage account. The minimum subsequent investment is $100. This no-load fund has no management fee and no front end sales load fee. For retirement account, please check with your brokerage. The other class is Admiral Shares (VEXAX). Besides opening an account in Vanguard, it can be purchased from Ameriprise Brokerage, LPL SAM Eligible, EP Fee Small, Scottrade Load, Mony Securities Corp, T Rowe Price, etc.

As of April 2013, this fund has a total of 3040 stocks. The 10 largest month-end holdings are General Motors Co, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, Liberty Global Inc, Facebook Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc, Linkedin Corp, Liberty Media Corp, Kansas City Southern and United Continental Holdings Inc. They represent 4.7% of the total net assets. The top equity sectors are Financials (23.50%), Industrials (15.60%), Consumer Discretionary (15.60%) and Information Technology (14.70%).

The primary risks for investing in this VEXMX fund are stock market risk, investment style risk and index sampling risk.

Disclosure: No Position