Which returned more over the last year, QUAL or VO?

In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, QUAL returned +13.1% and VO +12.8%.

Which is cheaper, QUAL or VO?

VO is cheaper, by 0.12 percentage points a year. That is about $12 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do QUAL and VO overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 97% of QUAL and 91% of VO by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Data as of Oct 28, 2026.

Across categories

QUAL vs VO: Differences, Returns & Fees

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Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, QUAL returned +13.1% to VO's +12.8%; 13% of their weight is in the same names.

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Net assets: $48.2bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF, and $103.4bn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF.

QUAL on its own →VO on its own →

At a glance

+13.1%

QUAL total return, 1 year

+12.8%

VO total return, 1 year

0.15%

QUAL expense ratio

0.03%

VO expense ratio

Pair scorecard

VO costs 0.12 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 0.3 points; VO is 2.2 times larger.

QUAL vs VO: Differences, Returns & Fees
Measure	QUAL	VO
Return
Measure	QUAL	VO
Total return, 1 year	+13.1%	+12.8%
Drawdown
Measure	QUAL	VO
Below its high		3.1%, high on Aug 14, 2026
Benchmark
Measure	QUAL	VO
What it tracks	MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality Index	Morningstar US Mid Cap Index (formerly CRSP US Mid Cap Index)
Cost and size
Measure	QUAL	VO
Expense ratio	0.15%	0.03%
Net assets, as of Sep 30, 2026	$47.7bn	$103.4bn
Holdings
Measure	QUAL	VO
Holdings in common	13%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	44.5%	9.7%

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Sep 30, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026. Method

Risk and return

Jul 26, 2013 to Oct 23, 2026 · 691 weekly returns

QUAL VO

Return

Total return edge QUAL +444.7% +295.4%

Annualized edge QUAL +13.6% +10.9%

Price return edge QUAL +346.8% +222.5%

Risk

Volatility edge QUAL (slight) 16.2% 17.6%

Max drawdown edge QUAL −31.4% −37.4%

Risk-adjusted

Sharpe edge QUAL 0.75 0.57

Sortino edge QUAL 1.09 0.81

Calmar edge QUAL 0.43 0.29

Reading

QUAL returned more: +444.7% to +295.4%. QUAL swung slightly less: 16.2% to 17.6%. QUAL fell less at its worst: −31.4% to −37.4%.

Full scorecard

9 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓

Risk and return: QUAL vs VO: Differences, Returns & Fees
Measure	QUAL	VO	Edge	How it is measured
Return
Total return	+444.7%	+295.4%	QUAL	Price change plus distributions, reinvested.
Annualized	+13.6%	+10.9%	QUAL	Total return as a yearly rate.
Price return	+346.8%	+222.5%	QUAL	Price change alone, distributions left out.
Risk
Volatility	16.2%	17.6%	QUAL (slight)	Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier.
Downside deviation	11.2%	12.3%	QUAL (slight)	Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate.
Max drawdown	−31.4%	−37.4%	QUAL	Deepest fall from a high to the low after it.
Risk-adjusted
Sharpe	0.75	0.57	QUAL	Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility.
Sortino	1.09	0.81	QUAL	Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation.
Calmar	0.43	0.29	QUAL	Annualized return divided by the max drawdown.

Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 691 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.

What they share

13%

By the books each fund has filed, QUAL and VO hold 13% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Sep 30, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026.

50%

0 half 100%

half

13% in common

Positions both hold · largest shared weight first QUAL VO

ROSS STORES INC 1.41% 0.74%

HOWMET AEROSPACE 0.56% 0.89%

FORTINET 1.30% 0.55%

FASTENAL 0.54% 0.56%

WW GRAINGER INC 0.53% 0.55%

GARMIN 0.89% 0.47%

COMFORT SYSTEMS USA 0.45% 0.57%

MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS INC 0.45% 0.73%

XCEL ENERGY INC 0.51% 0.43%

CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL 0.73% 0.40%

CONSOLIDATED EDISON 0.50% 0.37%

AUTODESK 0.36% 0.44%

Only in one fund ↓

Only in QUAL

MICROSOFT 8.09%

APPLE 7.38%

NVIDIA 6.28%

META PLATFORMS CLASS A 4.06%

ELI LILLY 4.04%

TJX 3.50%

VISA CLASS A 3.44%

LAM RESEARCH 2.84%

Only in VO

Cloudflare Inc 1.11%

Valero Energy Corp 1.10%

Marathon Petroleum Corp 1.10%

Phillips 66 1.01%

Quanta Services Inc 0.95%

Vertiv Holdings Co 0.92%

Datadog Inc 0.91%

Robinhood Markets Inc 0.88%

Check overlap with more funds →

Side by side

QUAL iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF VO Vanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer iShares Vanguard

What it is Tracks the MSCI USA Quality Factor Tracks an index of Mid-Cap

Total return, 1 year +13.1% +12.8%

Its benchmark over the same days +13.6% (MLRG) not measured

Gap to its benchmark −0.5 pts vs MLRG not measured

Expense ratio 0.15% 0.03%

Already in the S&P 500 97.2% 91.1%

Holdings 119 273

Net assets, QUAL as of Oct 28, 2026 and VO as of Sep 30, 2026 $48.2bn $103.4bn

QUAL and VO on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

Client brief · page 1 of 2 Report BR-A470A94004

QUAL and VO do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?

What each follows. QUAL follows MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality Index and VO follows Morningstar US Mid Cap Index (formerly CRSP US Mid Cap Index).
Holdings in common. 13% of the weight is in the same securities (holdings dated Oct 27, 2026 and Sep 30, 2026).
Cost. QUAL charges 0.15% of assets a year and VO 0.03%, a gap of 0.12 points.

Data as of Oct 28, 2026.

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About each fund

QUAL

QUAL tracks the MSCI USA Quality Factor. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.1% with distributions reinvested, against +13.6% for its benchmark, the MSCI USA Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.15% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 97% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 119 positions, with the top ten at 44.5%.

VO tracks an index of Mid-Cap. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +12.8% with distributions reinvested. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.03% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer as of Sep 30, 2026, 91% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 273 positions, with the top ten at 9.7%. It sat 3.1% below its high of Aug 14, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, QUAL or VO?: In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, QUAL returned +13.1% and VO +12.8%.
Which is cheaper, QUAL or VO?: VO is cheaper, by 0.12 percentage points a year. That is about $12 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do QUAL and VO overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 97% of QUAL and 91% of VO by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

IJH vs QUAL QUAL vs VXF MDY vs QUAL FTGS vs QUAL DIA vs VO DYNF vs VO CGGR vs VO RDVY vs VO

Where to next

QUAL on its own →VO on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →QUAL dividend history →QUAL holdings →VO dividend history →VO holdings →Standards and sources →

Sources and dates

QUAL filings on SEC EDGAR ↗

QUAL prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗

iShares page for QUAL ↗

VO filings on SEC EDGAR ↗

VO prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗

Vanguard page for VO ↗

Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.

How this is computed

Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.

Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, QUAL against VO, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/qual-vs-vo

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Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.