VANGUARD CORE BOND FUND
VANGUARD MALVERN FUNDS · Series S000053068 · 2 share classes
data updated 2026-09-08
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.
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.
| Share class | Expense ratio |
|---|---|
| VCOBX | 0.10% |
| VCORX | 0.20% |
Portfolio turnover 367.00% · as of 2026 Q1
Allocation
Asset groups · long / short shown separately, never netted · 2026 Q2
| Bonds | 59.38% |
| Securitized | 37.40% |
| Cash & short-term | 0.07% |
| Loans | 0.02% |
| Derivatives | -0.03% |
The outer band is exposure held short — written against the portfolio rather than part of it, which is why it sits outside the ring and why the two are never netted into one figure.
Derivatives are shown at market value, not notional exposure.
Latest quarter
What changed since the fund's previous filing
Largest new: Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac ×2, NVIDIA Corp ×2, United States Treasury Note/Bond, Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau, OBX 2026-INV2 Trust, Fannie Mae REMICS
Largest exited: Ginnie Mae II Pool, United States Treasury Note/Bond ×6, United States Treasury Bill
Return profile
Total return as filed — price change plus distributions reinvested · trailing figures to Apr 2026
| Share class | 1-year | 3-year | 5-year | Vol | Worst fall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +4.52% | +12.59% | +2.40% | 3.43% | -5.80% | |
| +4.43% | +12.21% | +1.87% | 3.35% | -5.90% |
These classes hold the same portfolio, so the 0.52pp spread over 5 years is the cost difference between them — roughly 0.10pp a year — not a difference in what they own.
May 2026 and Jun 2026 have been filed since the trailing figures were struck, so they are 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 2026-06-30
Share of the fund's debt by how its coupon behaves — the fact that decides whether a rate move reaches this portfolio at all.
| Fixed rate | 79.1% |
| Floating rate | 20.9% |
Share of the fund's debt value in each maturity band, shortest first.
| <1y | 5.3% |
| 1-3y | 11.2% |
| 3-5y | 12.0% |
| 5-10y | 19.8% |
| 10y+ | 51.7% |
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 2026Q2
Most of this fund’s sensitivity is to interest rates, with credit spreads carrying about half as much.
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.
| Interest rates | 60% |
| Credit spreads | 40% |
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.
Share of the fund's spread duration carried by each credit tier.
| Investment grade | +3.65 yr |
| High yield | +0.11 yr |
Share of duration at each point, shortest first. A positive figure loses value when spreads widen; a negative one offsets — a credit hedge.
| 1 yr | 0.67 yr | 12% |
| 5 yr | 1.66 yr | 29% |
| 10 yr | 2.12 yr | 37% |
| 30 yr | 1.25 yr | 22% |
3 mo is NEGATIVE (-0.06 yr) — a deliberate hedge at that point on the curve, so it is not part of the band above.
| 3 mo | 0.02 yr | 0% |
| 1 yr | 0.41 yr | 11% |
| 5 yr | 1.20 yr | 32% |
| 10 yr | 1.55 yr | 41% |
| 30 yr | 0.58 yr | 15% |
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
| Tenor | Rate yrs | IG yrs | HY yrs | IG $/bp | HY $/bp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 mo | -0.06 | +0.02 | +0.00 | $36.4k | $2.2k |
| 1 yr | +0.67 | +0.39 | +0.02 | $875.9k | $52.4k |
| 5 yr | +1.66 | +1.15 | +0.05 | $2.60m | $112.6k |
| 10 yr | +2.12 | +1.53 | +0.03 | $3.45m | $59.9k |
| 30 yr | +1.25 | +0.57 | +0.01 | $1.30m | $12.1k |
Dollar change per 1bp of spread movement, as filed and sign-anchored. A blank cell was not filed; a zero was.
Duration contribution in years, summing to the fund's 5.63 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
| Ticker | Issuer | %NAV | Value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac5.00% · due 2026-07-13 | 2.32% | $524.38M | — |
| — | NVIDIA Corp4.25% · due 2028-06-15 | 0.96% | $217.47M | — |
| — | NVIDIA Corp4.35% · due 2029-06-15 | 0.75% | $169.18M | — |
| — | United States Treasury Note/Bond3.88% · due 2030-06-30 | 0.62% | $140.58M | — |
| — | Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau4.13% · due 2031-07-22 | 0.62% | $139.49M | — |
| — | OBX 2026-INV2 Trust5.38% floating · due 2056-04-25 | 0.60% | $137.09M | — |
| — | Fannie Mae REMICS5.08% floating · due 2056-06-25 | 0.60% | $136.01M | — |
| — | Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac5.50% · due 2026-07-13 | 0.58% | $131.84M | — |
| — | Finland Government International Bond4.50% · due 2036-06-03 | 0.55% | $124.59M | — |
| — | Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac6.00% · due 2026-07-13 | 0.53% | $120.65M | — |
Top 10 positions are 8.13% of net assets, top 25 14.22%, across 1.3K issuers.
See more of this fund's book
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