vtsax stock price: NAV & Fund Details

A practical guide to the vtsax stock price — how Vanguard calculates the NAV, where to find up-to-date quotes and NAV history, fund characteristics, fees, distributions, and how VTSAX compares to E...

2024-07-04 08:14:00

By Meta Cipher

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Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTSAX) — Stock Price

Note: This article explains how to read the vtsax stock price (NAV) and where to obtain reliable fund data. It is educational and not investment advice.

截至 2026-01-24，据 Vanguard 报道：the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares remains a primary core U.S. equity vehicle for many investors. This article focuses on the vtsax stock price — what it means, how it is calculated, where to find current and historical NAVs, and other fund facts you need to track performance.

Overview

Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTSAX) seeks to track the performance of the CRSP US Total Market Index. The fund provides broad exposure to the entire U.S. equity market across large-, mid-, small-, and micro-cap stocks. Investors commonly use VTSAX as a single-fund core holding for long-term, buy-and-hold portfolios because it captures essentially the full investable U.S. stock market at very low cost.

This article will help you interpret the vtsax stock price (reported as NAV per share), find reliable sources for quotes and history, compare VTSAX with ETF alternatives, and understand operational details like trading, distributions, fees, and tax reporting.

Ticker, Share Class, and Fund Classification

Ticker and share class: The commonly used identifier for Vanguard’s Admiral-share class of the Total Stock Market Index Fund is VTSAX. Note that VTSAX is an Admiral mutual-fund share class and not a listed stock in the usual sense. For quote and data aggregation purposes, VTSAX is displayed on market-data platforms using the VTSAX ticker.
Mutual fund (not an intraday-traded stock): VTSAX is a mutual fund share class, specifically the Admiral shares that typically offer a lower expense ratio and a modest minimum initial investment compared with earlier retail share classes.
Morningstar category: VTSAX is typically classified in Morningstar’s "Large Blend" or broad U.S. equity indexes category due to its market-cap-weighted exposure across the total U.S. equity market.

What “Stock Price” Means for a Mutual Fund (NAV vs. Market Price)

Investors searching for "vtsax stock price" should know that a mutual fund’s price equals its Net Asset Value (NAV) per share, calculated once per trading day after markets close. Unlike ETFs and stocks that trade intraday with continuously changing market prices, VTSAX is priced at the fund’s end-of-day NAV.

NAV definition: NAV = (market value of all fund holdings − liabilities) ÷ total outstanding shares. The NAV updates once daily after the market close when portfolio positions are priced.
Trading implications: Orders to buy or sell VTSAX placed during the trading day are executed at the next calculated NAV, not at an intraday quote. That difference is central to understanding the phrase "vtsax stock price." When you look up the vtsax stock price on a quote page, you are typically seeing the most recent published NAV and related summary fields (e.g., previous day close, yield, distributions).

Current Price and Real-time Quotes

Where to find current NAV and quote summaries for VTSAX:

Vanguard’s official fund profile: the primary authoritative source for the official daily NAV, prospectus details, holdings, fee schedules and tax documents.
Major financial-data sites: Yahoo Finance, Morningstar, CNBC, StockAnalysis, and TradingView provide quote pages that show the latest published NAV, yield, and performance summaries.
Note on "real-time" data: Because VTSAX NAV is calculated after market close, there is no true intraday NAV. Some data providers offer "estimated" or "indicative" NAVs intraday or display near-real-time proxy quotes; these are estimates and may differ from the eventual published NAV.

When viewing the vtsax stock price on aggregator sites, pay attention to any labels marking the value as "previous close," "most recent NAV," "estimated NAV," or the timestamp. Those labels are important for understanding currency and accuracy.

Historical Price and Price History

Historical NAV series are an essential tool for performance review and backtesting. Daily NAV history provides the building blocks for total-return calculations, rolling returns, drawdown analysis, and habitually used performance metrics.

Where historical NAV is available: Vanguard’s website provides historical NAV tables and downloadable files. Third-party providers like Morningstar, StockAnalysis, Yahoo Finance and specialized historical-data services aggregate NAV series and chart them across daily, monthly and annual time frames.
Uses of NAV history: investors and advisors use daily NAVs to build total-return time series (including reinvested distributions), compute annualized returns, compare periods (YTD, 1Y, 5Y, 10Y) and evaluate risk statistics like volatility and maximum drawdown.

Typical Historical Data Provided

Most historical tables or data downloads include several common fields:

NAV (per-share price) — the daily closing NAV.
Adjusted NAV or total-return adjusted series — NAV net of distributions or NAV adjusted to show reinvested dividends, useful for long-term performance comparisons.
Distribution amounts and ex-dates — necessary to build total-return series and for tax calculations.
Date stamps and data provider metadata.

These fields let investors reconstruct performance with or without dividends reinvested, compare VTSAX to benchmarks, and generate charts for different windows.

Performance and Returns

Performance is reported for mutual funds in both NAV-return and total-return terms. For accurate long-term comparisons, use NAV total return (which assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains) rather than NAV-only price changes.

Common performance metrics shown for VTSAX include:

Year-to-date (YTD) return
1-year, 3-year, 5-year, 10-year returns
Since-inception return
Annualized returns for multi-year periods
Calendar-year returns and rolling-period returns

Sources such as Vanguard’s performance page, Morningstar, CNBC, and StockAnalysis display these metrics. When referencing the vtsax stock price in performance tables, ensure you select total-return figures if you want to capture dividend reinvestment.

Fund Size, Holdings and Top Constituents

VTSAX tracks the broad U.S. market and therefore holds thousands of stocks across sectors. Key points:

Assets under management (AUM): Vanguard publishes total net assets for the fund. As a total-market fund, VTSAX typically has substantial AUM, reflecting broad investor demand for low-cost total-market exposure. As noted above, "as of" dates on Vanguard pages provide the latest AUM figure.
Number of holdings: VTSAX’s holdings generally number in the thousands, mirroring the CRSP US Total Market Index constituents and weights.
Top holdings and sector concentrations: by design, large-cap names will have the highest weights. Typical top holdings (which rotate over time) include major technology and consumer names such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia and Alphabet. Sector weights follow the market-cap distribution of the U.S. market and therefore may be tilted towards information technology, financials, and consumer discretionary sectors at times.

Note: exact holdings and weights change continually as market caps fluctuate and the fund rebalances. For up-to-date holdings and the exact weight of each name, consult Vanguard’s holdings page or provider snapshots on Morningstar/StockAnalysis.

Fees, Expense Ratio and Investment Minimum

Expense ratio: Vanguard’s Admiral-share class for the Total Stock Market Index Fund is known for a very low expense ratio. The Admiral shares historically have had an expense ratio near 0.04%. Confirm the current expense ratio on Vanguard’s official fund page before making investment decisions.
Minimum initial investment: Admiral-share classes often require a minimum initial investment (for VTSAX, historically the minimum has been $3,000 for most investors). Minimums and eligibility conditions can change, so always check the latest Vanguard documentation.
Fee comparison to ETF alternative: the ETF counterpart (commonly VTI) often has comparable or slightly different expense ratios and offers intraday trading. Mutual-fund investors should compare after-fee returns and consider trading and tax implications when deciding between VTSAX and the ETF alternative.

Distributions, Dividends and Yield

Distribution schedule: VTSAX typically makes regular distributions (often quarterly) representing income from dividends and any capital gains distributions. Vanguard posts the distribution history with ex-dates and pay dates.
Yield metrics: providers report different yield measures (SEC yield, trailing 12-month yield, distribution yield). The reported yield can differ depending on the methodology. When looking up the vtsax stock price, also review the yield field and confirm which yield definition is being used.
Ex-dividend and pay dates: these are provided on Vanguard’s site and on financial-data platforms. Distributions reduce the NAV on the ex-date and are reflected in total-return calculations.

Equivalent ETF and Share-class Alternatives

ETF equivalent: Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (commonly known as VTI) is the ETF equivalent that tracks a similar index. VTI trades intraday like a stock and provides intraday liquidity, which is the primary structural difference relative to VTSAX.
Mutual fund share-class alternatives: Vanguard has offered multiple share classes historically (retail class, Admiral shares, institutional shares) with different expense ratios and minimums. VTSAX is the Admiral-share class intended for investors who meet the minimum requirement and want the mutual-fund structure.
Practical differences: mutual funds (VTSAX) execute orders at next NAV; ETFs (VTI) execute at market prices intraday. Tax treatment, brokerage commissions, and account availability may influence whether an investor selects the fund or the ETF.

NAV Calculation and Pricing Mechanics

NAV calculation is foundational to understanding the vtsax stock price:

Calculation mechanics: At market close, the fund values each holding at its market price, sums the values of all holdings, subtracts fund liabilities (expenses, accrued fees), and divides by the number of outstanding shares to produce the NAV per share.
Corporate actions and dividends: corporate actions (splits, mergers) and dividend payments are processed by the fund and reflected in holdings valuations. When the fund distributes income or capital gains, the NAV drops by the distribution amount on the ex-date, while shareholders receive cash or reinvestment according to their election.
NAV adjustments: adjusted NAV series include reinvested distributions, which is necessary for computing total return.

Trade Execution and Settlement

Order timing: mutual-fund trades for VTSAX are executed at the next computed NAV after the order is received. Orders placed during market hours are queued for the day’s close calculation; in many fund platforms, orders placed before the fund’s cutoff time receive that day’s NAV, while later orders receive the next business day’s NAV.
Settlement: mutual-fund purchases normally follow a standard settlement timeline determined by the fund and broker (often next-business-day processes and funds availability), but settlement mechanics differ from stock/ETF T+2 settlement rules governed by brokerages.
Implications: investors who require intraday execution or the ability to use intraday limit orders may prefer ETF share classes; mutual-fund investors benefit from NAV-based pricing and often lower friction for automatic investments and dividend reinvestment.

How to Track and Where to Get Accurate Price Data

Reliable sources for NAV and fund data include:

Vanguard official site: official NAV, prospectus, holdings, AUM, distributions, tax documents and fund notices.
Morningstar: performance metrics, risk statistics, fund ratings (subject to Morningstar’s methodology), and historical NAVs.
Yahoo Finance: quote pages with latest published NAV, historical NAV series, basic performance snapshots.
CNBC and StockAnalysis: fund summaries, quote snapshots and performance data.
TradingView: visualization and summary pages that often include the most recently published NAV and performance charts.
Specialized historical-data services (e.g., Digrin): downloadable historical NAV data and adjusted NAV series.

Note on data delays and differences: different vendors may show slightly different numbers due to publication times, rounding, and whether the provider displays adjusted NAV or raw NAV. Always cross-check critical figures against Vanguard’s official fund profile for the authoritative NAV and distribution history.

Risks and Considerations

VTSAX, as a broad U.S. equity index fund, carries the typical risks of equity investments:

Market risk: the value of VTSAX rises and falls with the U.S. stock market; investors are exposed to broad market volatility.
Concentration risk: although the fund is diversified across thousands of names, it is market-cap-weighted so large-cap names can represent meaningful portions of fund weight at times.
Tracking error: while index funds aim to track their target index, small tracking differences may arise due to expenses, cash holdings, and portfolio-management practices.
Tax considerations: in taxable accounts, dividend distributions and any capital gains realized by the fund can produce tax liabilities for shareholders.

When choosing between VTSAX and ETF alternatives, investors should weigh liquidity needs, tax considerations, account types, and minimum investment requirements.

Tax Treatment and Reporting

Taxable accounts: distributions from VTSAX can include ordinary dividends, qualified dividends and capital gains. Vanguard provides annual tax documents and Form 1099 information for shareholders.
Qualified dividends and capital gains: the portion eligible as qualified dividends (lower tax rate for U.S. taxpayers) and any capital gains distributions are reported by the fund on annual tax statements.
Where to find tax documents: Vanguard publishes annual tax notices and the fund’s prospectus, which outline tax-related detail for the fund’s distributions.

Use Cases and Investor Suitability

Common use cases for VTSAX:

Core allocation for long-term investors seeking broad U.S. equity exposure.
Retirement accounts and automatic contribution plans that benefit from mutual-fund features like automatic investing and dividend reinvestment.
Investors who prefer a mutual-fund structure (no intraday trading) and want Admiral-share economies of scale.

Considerations when choosing VTSAX:

Minimum investment requirement: VTSAX’s Admiral share class has a minimum initial investment (historically $3,000), which may make the ETF alternative attractive for smaller accounts.
Liquidity preference: investors requiring instant intraday trades might favor an ETF version.

References and Data Sources

Authoritative reference sources to verify the vtsax stock price and fund details:

Vanguard official fund profile and prospectus (official NAV, distributions, AUM and holdings)
Morningstar fund page (performance metrics, risk statistics, holdings snapshots)
Yahoo Finance quote page (NAV and historical series)
CNBC and StockAnalysis fund summaries (quotes and yield metrics)
TradingView (visual charts and provider-supplied summaries)
Historical-data aggregators (e.g., Digrin) for downloadable NAV series