A sound investment process and strong management team underpin Vanguard Interm-Term Bond ETF's Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the least expensive fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy's investment process inspires confidence and earns a High Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight in corporate bonds and an underweight in AA rated bonds compared with category peers. The strategy’s management team earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm a High Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

Analyst Rating

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fd earns a High Process Pillar rating. Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. This fund tracks an index, which supports the rating. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, shows that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is: 

The investment seeks to track the performance of the Bloomberg U.S. 5-10 Year Government/Credit Float Adjusted Index.  This index includes all medium and larger issues of U.S. government, investment-grade corporate and investment-grade international dollar-denominated bonds that have maturities between 5 and 10 years and are publicly issued. All of the fund's investments will be selected through the sampling process, and and at least 80% of its assets will be invested in bonds held in the index.  

 This strategy's 12-month yield is 3.2%, lower than its average peers' 3.6%. Plus, its 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity) sits at 4.7%. Typically, a lower yield comes with the benefit of less credit risk. But that isn't always the case. Over the past 12 months, the average yield of the fund has been lower than the average yield of its Morningstar Category peers. The portfolio's average surveyed credit quality is on par with peers, with both the fund and the average being rated A. In terms of long-term interest-rate risk, this strategy is on par with peers. The longer a strategy's duration, the more sensitive it is to shifts in interest rates. This fund, with a 6.2-year duration, is expected to gain 6.2% of its net asset value if interest rates drop by 1 percentage point, and vice versa.

High

Process

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fd's strong fixed income team drives the strategy's Above Average People Pillar rating. The fund takes a solo manager approach, with Joshua Barrickman as the only listed manager at the helm, who brings 18 years of portfolio management experience to the table. They manage a total of 19 strategies, with a Gold asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating the potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate. With only one manager listed on the strategy, the passive strategy is vulnerable to key-person risk.However, they have built history managing the strategy, it has not changed hands within the last five years. 

 Note: This People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. Morningstar analysts evaluate the People Pillar for passive products at the brand level and may also differentiate by asset class. There is at least one other passive strategy at the firm that is covered by a Morningstar analyst, so the People Pillar rating of the fund is inherited from the rating that the Morningstar analyst assigned to investment vehicles under the same brand name.

Above Average

People

The Vanguard Group retains a High Parent rating. 

Mutual ownership, low costs, and a direct-to-investor playbook have helped spur Vanguard's leadership within the United States. Client service missteps notwithstanding, Vanguard over the past decade has grown its market share of U.S. open-end and exchange-traded fund assets at about a 5% annualized clip. At that rate, Vanguard's portion of the U.S. industry will cross 50% around 2035.

True, some competitors can now match or even undercut Vanguard on fees for broad market exposure. But Vanguard's burgeoning advice business could help it keep or even extend that lead. Through Digital Advisor and Personal Advisor Services, Vanguard has built an increasingly compelling ecosystem of advice for investors with simple to complex needs.

Vanguard is also using its advice business to expand overseas, but that's a work in progress. Of Vanguard's USD 7.6 trillion in global assets under management in March 2023, non-U.S. investors owned less than 10%, a figure that has changed little in recent years. Strategic shifts in China and other markets account for the slow pace, including returning money to institutions that had been layering on fees. Vanguard hopes to recoup that money and more by focusing on individual investors and the advisors who serve them. Provided Vanguard sticks to its playbook, its advantages should translate into success abroad, too.

Parent

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF

BIV tracks a market-weighted index of the entire investment-grade fixed-income market with maturities of 5-10 years.

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury ETF

Fixed income investors these days may be tasked with looking for opportunities that can provide the best blend of yield, while at the same time mitigating rate risk. The melding of those two benefits is available in the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF (BIV).

Balanced Yield and Rate Risk With This Bond ETF

Investors appear to be taking a Goldilocks-like approach to bonds — not too short and not too long. According to a Reuters report, investors have been opting for intermediate term-bonds funds of the Treasury variety as uncertainty over the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy looms.

Intermediate Bonds Funds Drawing Investor Interest

The Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund ETF Shares is a good instrument for low-risk investors looking to benefit from a possible decline in interest rates. The Federal Reserve System is close to finishing its high interest rate policy; then, it will likely start a progressive decline in the rates, positively impacting the ETF.

BIV: Why The ETF Is A Good Investment

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Two renowned Wall Street firms, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, are advising investors to consider purchasing five-year U.S. Treasury notes, per Bloomberg, as quoted on Yahoo Finance.

A Fan of Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan? Buy Intermediate Treasury ETFs

Investing in bond ETFs has been challenging, but that may change as bonds become a great diversifier. Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund ETF Shares is worth considering, as it tracks the performance of the Bloomberg U.S. 5-10 Year Government/Credit Float Adjusted Index. The BIV ETF has a large portfolio, low expense ratio, and potential for a steady income and capital appreciation in a stabilizing or decreasing interest rate environment.

BIV: A Time To Finally Allocate

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Despite the Fed's aggressive monetary tightening and the regional banking crisis earlier this year, the U.S. economy has been surprisingly resilient. Bond yields continue to rise, with long-term Treasuries at their highest level since October 2007.

Bond Yields Keep Rising as Economy Remains Resilient

A total of $45.9 billion flowed into fixed income strategies in the second quarter. And much of these inflows were into intermediate fixed income ETFs.

Gain More Intermediate Fixed Income Exposure With BIV, VCIT, and VGIT

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Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities ETF

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Vanguard Growth ETF

Inflation above 2% has a negative impact on stock prices; the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has averaged poor performance during such years. Various sub-sectors of the stock market and sectors of the bond market are affected differently by high inflation. My data shows that energy, utilities, and gold stocks tend to perform well during periods of high inflation, while value category funds outperform growth category funds.

With Inflation Still High, These ETFs Will Likely Disappoint This Year

Traders are pricing in a 1-in-3 chance of a quarter-point rate increase by the November Federal Reserve meeting. Q3 GDP growth is tracking at over 5%, but the chance of a rate hike at the September FOMC meeting remains modest. I reiterate my hold rating on the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund ETF Shares.

BIV: Concerning Price Action, Bearish Seasonals Offset A 2.5% Real Yield

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Global ETF Market Facts: 3 Things To Know From Q2 2023

After a series of interest rate hikes, the Federal Reserve decided to hold steady on Wednesday. For now, the Fed is keeping the federal funds rate at its current target range of 5% to 5.25%.

Don't Expect Rates to Go Down Just Yet

Schwab Intermediate-Term US Treasury ETF

Inflation remains above the Fed's target in 2023, leading to uncertainty about soft and hard-landing scenarios. Comparing the look of the stock/bond ratio in 2023 to historical hard-landing cases provides insight into present day bull/bear odds, as well as what to monitor in the weeks ahead.

If This Ratio Flips, It May Be Time To Sell Stocks And Buy Bonds

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Rates Are Close Peaking; I Am Cautious On Equities.

Rates Are Close Peaking; I Am Cautious On Equities

Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF

U.S. companies announced nearly 90,000 layoffs in March, up 15% from the 78,000 announced in February and up 319% from the more than 21,000 cuts announced in the same month in 2022, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Companies Announce 90,000 Layoffs in March

BIV invests in intermediate-term investment grade bonds. The fund offers an attractive yield of 4.64%.

BIV: Accumulate Especially When A Negative Spike Occurs

After a historically bad year for bonds, investors and industry insiders have become far more bullish on fixed income for 2023. Last year, falling bond prices overshadowed whatever benefits were gained from rising yields.

Target Broad-Based Fixed Income While Prices are Low & Yields Are High

While it's likely that the Federal Reserve's attempts to bring down inflation through interest rate hikes will eventually succeed, it will also lead to a worldwide economic downturn, according to Vanguard Group's 2023 economic and market outlook.

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BIV is essentially one of Vanguard's main efforts to grab market share from another bond ETF behemoth, AGG. BIV is a straightforward fund that should give straightforward, bond-market-index-tracking results.

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Investors no longer view fixed income as the safe harbor asset it was once perceived as. Funds tracking the U.S. bond market have lost roughly 16% year-to-date, while long-dated U.S. Treasurys have plummeted 34%.

Intermediate Bond Funds Like BIV Expected to Rebound

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose for a sixth straight week as the market comes to grip with a hawkish Fed. Despite easing inflation worries, Chair Powell again communicated that big policy rate hikes are imminent.

BIV: Bond Market Braces For Incoming CPI Data And The September FOMC Rate Decision

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These days, checking on how your investments are doing feels a little like asking for a hard punch in the gut. Nearly every major asset class has suffered losses in recent months.

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‘BND' is getting a half-basis point haircut.

Vanguard Cuts Fees On 4 Bond ETFs

Vanguard today reported expense ratio reductions for four broadly diversified bond ETFs.  The ETFs affected include the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF (BIV), the Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF (BLV), and the Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF (BSV), each of which dropped to four basis points from five, and the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND), which dropped [.

Vanguard Lowers Fees on 4 Bond ETFs

Inflation is now well over the Fed's preferred level of 2% and promises to remain overheated during the remainder of 2022.So the question becomes what categories of ETFs (or even mutual funds) an investor should consider owning in order to avoid the generally poor returns that inflation may bring.

The Best ETFs To Own When Inflation Is High

BIV is an ETF that gives exposure to the intermediate-term, investment-grade U.S. bond market, having a 50/50 split between government securities and investment-grade bonds.

News for Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF ETF (BIV)