Vanguard (VONG) vs. iShares (IWO): Which Growth Stock ETF Is Best for Investors?

1 week ago 4

Josh Kohn-Lindquist, The Motley Fool

Fri, March 27, 2026 astatine 11:22 AM CDT 5 min read

Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth ETF (NASDAQ:VONG) and iShares Russell 2000 Growth ETF (NYSEMKT:IWO) people U.S. maturation stocks but disagree sharply connected cost, portfolio size, and assemblage focus, with VONG leaning toward large-cap tech and IWO spanning a wider scope of small-cap maturation names.

VONG and IWO some purpose to seizure U.S. maturation stocks. Still, their approaches are distinct: VONG focuses connected large-cap growth, dominated by exertion giants, portion IWO targets tiny caps, offering a much diversified but riskier profile. This examination unpacks cost, performance, risk, and underlying holdings to assistance investors determine which benignant whitethorn entreaty more.

Metric

VONG

IWO

Issuer

Vanguard

IShares

Expense ratio

0.06%

0.24%

1-yr instrumentality (as of 2026-03-26)

14.1%

19.0%

Dividend yield

0.5%

0.5%

Beta

1.18

1.45

AUM

$47.0 billion

$13.1 billion

Beta measures terms volatility comparative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year monthly returns. The one-year instrumentality represents full instrumentality implicit the trailing 12 months.

VONG stands retired for its overmuch little disbursal ratio, making it much affordable for cost-conscious investors, arsenic IWO costs astir 4 times arsenic much. Both ETFs connection humble dividend yields of 0.5%.

Metric

VONG

IWO

Max drawdown (5 year)

-32.72%

-42.02%

Growth of $1,000 implicit 5 years

$1,814

$1,086

IWO tracks small-cap U.S. maturation stocks, presently holding 1,102 companies with a tilt toward healthcare (24%), exertion (23%), and industrials (22%). Its largest positions, specified arsenic Bloom Energy, Fabrinet, and Credo Technology, each comprise lone a tiny fraction of assets, reflecting wide diversification. With a money property of 25.7 years, IWO provides long-running entree to the small-cap maturation segment, which tin beryllium volatile but whitethorn connection unsocial opportunities for those seeking to diversify distant from mega-cap names.

VONG, successful contrast, holds 394 stocks and is heavy concentrated successful exertion (49%), with important value successful Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft. This attraction provides sharper vulnerability to large-cap tech trends, portion its assemblage premix and smaller banal number mean little diversification than IWO. Both funds debar leverage and different structural quirks, but their chiseled sizes and sectors could pb to diverging hazard and instrumentality patterns implicit time.

For much guidance connected ETF investing, cheque retired the afloat usher astatine this link.

Since 2010, VONG has delivered awesome annualized full returns of 16%, mostly powered by the Magnificent Seven, each of which holds a top-10 spot successful the ETF’s allocation. Over the aforesaid period, the S&P 500 Index roseate 14% annually, for comparison. Meanwhile, IWO compounded its full returns by astir 11% annually since 2010. While this is somewhat lower, it nevertheless matches the market’s semipermanent humanities averages and is thing to dismiss. Since IWO focuses connected small-cap maturation stocks, it missed the singular tally of the Magnificent Seven, which helped explicate overmuch of the underperformance.

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