Vanguard Australian Shares High Yield ETF (ASX:VHY) Outpaces the Broader ASX With Its Dividend-Focused Holdings

Aditi Sarkar

19 October 2026 09:57 PM AEDT

Vanguard Australian Shares High Yield ETF (ASX:VHY) Outpaces the Broader ASX With Its Dividend-Focused Holdings

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Highlights

The gap comes from the index rules. Ranking companies by forecast yield tilts VHY towards oil and gas and.
VHY tracks the FTSE Australia High Dividend Yield Index. The index ranks ASX-listed companies by forecast dividend yield and.
No single industry may exceed 40 per cent of the fund, and no company 10 per cent. The ETF.
Top holdings: BHP, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac and ANZ lead Vanguard's 30 September list. Rio Tinto, Woodside.

Australia's biggest dividend ETF is having a better year than the market it is drawn from. The Vanguard Australian Shares High Yield ETF (ASX:VHY) closed at A$84.66, its price up 8.19 per cent since January. The broad Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (VAS) has gained about 1 per cent.

The gap comes from the index rules. Ranking companies by forecast yield tilts VHY towards oil and gas and away from technology and health care. In 2026 that paid.

What VHY is and what it tracks

VHY tracks the FTSE Australia High Dividend Yield Index. The index ranks ASX-listed companies by forecast dividend yield and excludes Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs),.

No single industry may exceed 40 per cent of the fund, and no company 10 per cent. The ETF listed on 26 May 2011 and held 90 stocks at 30 September, with A$8.2 billion in ETF assets. Market data put its assets at US$5.64 billion.

Holdings and sector mix

Top holdings: BHP, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac and ANZ lead Vanguard's 30 September list. Rio Tinto, Woodside, Telstra, Macquarie and CSL complete a top 10 that makes up 61.6 per cent of the fund.

Financials were 39.2 per cent of the ETF at the end of September, close to the cap. Basic materials took 21.6 per cent and energy 10.9 per cent.

VAS, by contrast, holds 4.6 per cent in energy, 2.2 per cent in technology and 5.6 per cent in property, Vanguard says. VHY holds 0.6 per cent in technology and no A-REITs.

2026 performance and what drove it

Energy did the heavy lifting. The US-Iran conflict that began in late February disrupted the Strait of Hormuz and pushed Brent crude above US$100. Woodside, a top 10 holding, had risen more than 40 per cent by late April, The.

What VHY avoided mattered as much. Technology and health care were the ASX 200's worst sectors in 2025-26, each falling about 37 per cent,. CSL was down about 41 per cent for 2026 by mid-May after an A$6.9 billion impairment, the ABC reported.

Banks helped less than their weight suggests. By 15 October CBA was down 2.8 per cent for the year and Westpac 7.2 per cent, show. Macquarie was up 21.5 per cent.

In the year to 30 September VHY returned 12.30 per cent after fees, against 2.34 per cent for VAS,.

Yield, franking and the latest distribution

VHY pays quarterly. Its September-quarter distribution was 120.13 cents a unit, which went ex on 1 October and was paid on 16 October. Including franking and foreign tax credits, the gross figure was 166.87 cents.

Franked dividends made up about 87 per cent of the dividend income in that payment, based on the components in Vanguard's ASX notice. Vanguard puts the forecast equity yield at 4.3 per cent, or 5.8 per cent grossed up for franking. puts the trailing 12-month cash yield at 3.66 per cent.

Payouts vary: about A$6.57 a unit in 2025, against A$3.08 so far in 2026, show.

Longer-term record

Over the long run, income has done most of the work. VHY returned 10.22 per cent a year over the decade to 30 September, Vanguard says. Distributions supplied 6.39 percentage points of that, and capital growth 3.83 points.

Fees and close rivals

Size sets VHY apart. Stockspot put it at about A$7.7 billion at 30 June, against A$664 million for SYI, the next largest.

Metric	Value
Price (A$)	84.66
Daily change	+0.67%
Assets under management	US$5.64 billion
Management fee (issuer)	0.25%
1-week return	+2.00%
1-month return	−0.39%
3-month return	+1.30%
6-month return	+0.79%
YTD return	+8.19%
1-year return	+7.64%
5-year return	+31.71%
10-year return	+46.75%
3-year NAV total return	+50.98%
Relative volume	1.14

FAQs

Q: Why has VHY outperformed VAS in 2026?

A: VHY holds about 11 per cent in energy, against under 5 per cent for VAS, and almost no technology, which slumped this year.

Q: What was VHY's latest distribution?

A: VHY paid 120.13 cents a unit on 16 October 2026 for the September quarter, or 166.87 cents including franking and foreign tax credits.

Q: What is VHY's dividend yield?

A: Vanguard puts its forecast equity yield at 4.3 per cent, or 5.8 per cent grossed up for franking.

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