VANGUARD CORE BOND FUND

VANGUARD MALVERN FUNDS · Series S000053068 · 2 share classes

Bond fund · 101% debt· rate + credit risk filed
One fund, 2 share classes:VCOBXVCORX
$21.00B NAV
3,309 positions · as of 2026-03-31 · filed 2026-05-28
data updated 2026-08-10

Fund profile

As filed in the prospectus · 2026 Q1

Vanguard Core Bond Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide total return while generating a moderate level of current income.

Strategy · summarised

The fund actively manages a diversified bond portfolio across maturities, credit qualities, and geographies, targeting a dollar-weighted average maturity between 4 and 12 years and holding at least 80% in bonds including corporates, government securities, and mortgage-backed securities. The fund may hold up to 10% in foreign-currency bonds and up to 5% in below-investment-grade bonds, and may use derivatives including futures, swaps, and short positions to implement its strategy. Because security selection drives returns, performance depends on the manager's choices among bonds of varying quality and maturity.

Expenses
0.10% 0.20%across 2 share classes
Share classExpense ratio
VCOBX0.10%
VCORX0.20%

Portfolio turnover 367.00% · as of 2026 Q1

Allocation

Asset groups · long / short shown separately, never netted · 2026 Q1

102.03%
of net assets
Bonds63.77%
Securitized37.59%
Cash & short-term0.64%
Loans0.02%
Derivatives0.01%

Derivatives are shown at market value, not notional exposure.

Latest quarter

What changed since the fund's previous filing

vs 2025Q4: 571 new381 exited

Largest new: Ginnie Mae II Pool, United States Treasury Note/Bond ×2, United States Treasury Bill, Freddie Mac Gold Pool, Agence Francaise de Developpement EPIC, Corp Andina de Fomento, Central American Bank for Economic Integration

Largest exited: Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac ×3, United States Treasury Note/Bond ×4, Freddie Mac REMICS

Return profile

Chart:

Total return as filed — price change plus distributions reinvested · trailing figures to Feb 2026

Share class1-year3-year5-yearVolWorst fall
Cumulative return· Apr 2023 – Feb 2026

Mar 2026 has been filed since the trailing figures were struck, so it is not in the table above or the curve — every figure here shares one cut-off, which is what makes them comparable with other funds.

Debt profile

What this fund holds — value-weighted across its bond and securitized long positions · as of 2026-03-31

Avg coupon
4.37%
Avg maturity
13.07 yr
Coupon type

Share of the fund's debt by how its coupon behaves — the fact that decides whether a rate move reaches this portfolio at all.

15%
floating
Fixed rate84.5%
Floating rate15.0%
Zero-coupon or unclassified0.5%
Maturity ladder

Share of the fund's debt value in each maturity band, shortest first.

<1y10y+
<1y12.4%
1-3y11.8%
3-5y13.2%
5-10y16.4%
10y+46.1%
Flagged holdings
Defaulted: none reported
In arrears: none reported
Paid in kind: none reported

Based on what filers reported; a filer that never reported a flag also reads as none.

Risk profile

Interest-rate and credit-spread sensitivity, both in years · as of 2026Q1

Most of this fund’s sensitivity is to interest rates, with credit spreads carrying about half as much.

Interest-rate duration
5.87 yr
approx. move per 100bp
Credit-spread duration
3.62 yr
approx. move per 100bp
If rates and spreads both rise 100bp

Where the loss would come from. The two shocks are the same size, so this is the balance of the fund's two sensitivities rather than a bet on one moving more.

≈ -9.5%
of value
Interest rates62%
Credit spreads38%

Filers report the impact of a 0.01% move only, so the total is our own scaling of that one number and overstates the loss on most bonds — read it as approximate, never as precise. The two sensitivities overlap rather than add up: they measure the same positions against different shocks, which is why the durations above are shown side by side and never summed.

Credit risk by quality

Share of the fund's spread duration carried by each credit tier.

+3.62
yrs total
Investment grade+3.53 yr
High yield+0.09 yr
Where the risk sits on the curve

Share of duration at each point, shortest first. A positive figure loses value when spreads widen; a negative one offsets — a credit hedge.

Interest rate5.87 yr total
1 yr30 yr
1 yr0.72 yr12%
5 yr1.66 yr28%
10 yr2.28 yr39%
30 yr1.22 yr21%

3 mo is NEGATIVE (-0.01 yr) — a deliberate hedge at that point on the curve, so it is not part of the band above.

Credit spread3.62 yr total
3 mo30 yr
3 mo0.02 yr0%
1 yr0.40 yr11%
5 yr1.11 yr31%
10 yr1.50 yr41%
30 yr0.60 yr17%

The two bands measure the same positions against different shocks and do not add — a Treasury carries rate duration and no spread duration, a floating-rate credit the reverse. Rate tenors are also summed across every currency the fund discloses.

Show the numbers
TenorRate yrsIG yrsHY yrsIG $/bpHY $/bp
3 mo-0.01+0.02+0.00$34.5k$1.8k
1 yr+0.72+0.37+0.02$781.8k$50.7k
5 yr+1.66+1.06+0.04$2.24m$88.7k
10 yr+2.28+1.48+0.02$3.11m$38.5k
30 yr+1.22+0.60+0.01$1.25m$15.4k

Dollar change per 1bp of spread movement, as filed and sign-anchored. A blank cell was not filed; a zero was.

Rate exposure by currency

Duration contribution in years, summing to the fund's 5.87 yr.

USD+5.70 yr
EUR+0.21 yr
JPY-0.06 yr
HUF+0.00 yr
GBP+0.00 yr
CAD+0.00 yr
3 others-0.00 yr

This is where the fund's rate exposure sits, not its currency risk — most international bond funds hedge the currency back to dollars, and the size of those hedges is not in the filing. Tenors are also summed across curves, so a 5-year JPY point and a 5-year USD point are added together.

Holdings

By % of NAV · equity positions carry filed share counts · every resolvable issuer links to its company page

Issuer%NAVValue
Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac5.50% · due 2026-04-131.99%$416.81M
Ginnie Mae II Pool5.00% · due 2026-04-211.62%$339.41M
Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac6.00% · due 2026-04-131.53%$320.98M
Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac6.50% · due 2026-04-131.46%$305.61M
United States Treasury Note/Bond4.38% · due 2027-07-151.19%$249.03M
United States Treasury Note/Bond3.50% · due 2029-02-150.98%$206.81M
United States Treasury Note/Bond4.50% · due 2027-05-150.97%$203.12M
Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac3.50% · due 2026-04-130.96%$201.51M
Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac2.50% · due 2026-04-130.94%$198.39M
United States Treasury Note/Bond4.25% · due 2029-02-280.84%$176.76M
Showing 10 of 3,309Sign in to see more

Top 10 positions are 12.47% of net assets, top 25 20.18%, across 1.2K issuers.

See more of this fund's book

More positions with filed share counts, and the quarter-over-quarter change list rather than the largest few — free with an account, no card required.

Sign in free