Just because an ETF’s strategy isn’t getting much market attention doesn’t mean it isn’t successful. Funds can underperform the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.17%) for any number of reasons, but still take in billions of dollars of net new investor money.
Several Vanguard funds meet these criteria. But then again, Vanguard is an asset-drawing powerhouse. It tends to attract a certain type of long-term buy-and-hold investor, which helps make net inflows more durable regardless of the market environment.
High-yield equity ETFs, however, have managed to do well in part because of performance. They’re still mostly lagging the S&P 500, but they’ve also done somewhat better than dividend growth strategies. For investors whose focus is on dividend income rather than capital growth, that combination of higher yield and better total returns can be attractive.
Here are a pair of Vanguard ETFs that have been doing particularly well at this in 2026. For both, it has resulted in net positive inflows of more than $2 billion year to date.
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1. Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF
The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM 0.14%) is the third-largest dividend ETF in the marketplace. So the fact that it’s taken in $2.3 billion in net new money so far this year won’t catch anyone off guard. The ETF yields 2.2%.
Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF
Today’s Change
(-0.14%) $-0.23
Current Price
$158.96
Key Data Points
Day’s Range
$158.21 – $159.02
52wk Range
$127.92 – $159.68
Volume
9.3K
This fund has a relatively bland strategy: it simply calculates the estimated forward-looking yield of all dividend-paying stocks and then includes the top half of yields in the portfolio. But that strategy has delivered overweights in tech — Broadcom (AVGO +3.07%) is the largest individual holding at roughly 8% — and several big banks, which have done well as interest rates remain higher for longer.
2. Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF
If VYM is attracting a lot of money, it shouldn’t be surprising that its foreign counterpart, the Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF (VYMI 0.56%), is also doing the same. It has the third-largest year-to-date net inflow among dividend ETFs, with nearly $3 billion.
Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF
Today’s Change
(-0.56%) $-0.56
Current Price
$99.46
Key Data Points
Day’s Range
$99.22 – $99.75
52wk Range
$77.46 – $101.71
Volume
670.4K
This fund also has the tailwind of strong performance for international stocks at its back. Since the beginning of 2025, the Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF is up 55%, compared with a 30% gain for the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO +0.12%) over the same period. It currently yields 3.45%.
The outlook for high-yield equity ETFs
High-yielders don’t necessarily have the media appeal of tech, chip, and artificial intelligence stocks, but there’s certainly a case to be made for them. They did really well earlier this year when the market rotated away from tech stocks, but have managed to hang on even when tech reassumed the mantle.
The big banks have again done pretty well overall and should be able to continue with the Fed looking increasingly unlikely to cut rates. Industrials are still beating the S&P 500 as manufacturing demand picks up. Both trends could continue even as the AI build-out remains the market’s dominant theme.
Despite that, the environment remains positive for high-yield equities, and investors remain interested in this group.
David Dierking has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Broadcom, Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.