Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invests in ASX shares.
It's one of the biggest ETFs on the ASX. At the end of February 2022, the ETF was around $10 billion in size.
How much diversification does the VAS ETF have?
The business tracks the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO).
That means it should have 300 holdings. This is more than an ETF focused on the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), such as BetaShares Australia 200 ETF (ASX: A200). However, there are fewer holdings than an investment like iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV).
Yet, there are two sectors that get most of VAS's portfolio allocation. At the end of February 2022, 27.7% of the portfolio was invested in financial shares and 25% was invested in materials.
Looking at the other allocations, 9.4% was in healthcare, 7.3% was in real estate, 7.2% was in consumer discretionary, 5.8% was in industrials, 4.9% was in consumer staples, 4% was in communication services, 3.8% was in energy, 3.6% was in IT, and 1.3% was in utilities.
VAS ETF's biggest holdings
While there are 300 holdings in the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF portfolio, some positions are much larger than others.
There are only approximately 20 positions that had a weighting of more than 1%.
On 28 February 2022, these were the ten biggest positions in the portfolio:
BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) with a 11% allocation.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) with a 7.4% allocation.
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) with a 5.8% allocation.
National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) with a 4.4% allocation.
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) with a 3.7% allocation.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) with a 3.4% allocation.
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) with a 3% allocation.
Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) with a 2.5% allocation.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) with a 2.2% allocation.
Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) with a 2% weighting.
There are five large financial institutions in the top ten holdings of the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF. Resources also feature with a large weighting, particularly with BHP's significant position.
But at the other end of the portfolio are names like Ardent Leisure Group Ltd (ASX: ALG), Siteminder Ltd (ASX: SDR), Calix Ltd (ASX: CXL), and Aussie Broadband Ltd (ASX: ABB).
Dividend yield and management fee
Vanguard aims to make its management as low as possible for investors. It has an annual management fee of 0.10%.
According to Vanguard, the VAS ETF has a dividend yield of 4.2%.
