VANGUARD ULTRA-SHORT-TERM TAX-EXEMPT FUND
Actively managed U.S. bond fund
As of its 2026 Q2 report, VANGUARD ULTRA-SHORT-TERM TAX-EXEMPT FUND held 3,499 positions with $17.77B in net assets. Its ten largest holdings made up 9.6% of the fund. The VWSTX share class costs 0.17% a year. Over the 12 months to May 2026, VWSTX returned 3.7%, with dividends reinvested. In 2026 Q3 it added 614 new positions and exited 514.
Vanguard Ultra-Short-Term Tax-Exempt Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide current income that is exempt from federal personal income taxes, with limited price volatility.
The fund actively manages a portfolio of state and local municipal bonds with maturities typically between 1 and 2 years, targeting tax-exempt income with minimal price swings. At least 75% of assets are held in top-rated municipal bonds (Aaa, Aa, or A), with up to 20% in medium-quality bonds and 5% in lower-rated securities. Because security selection depends on the advisor's credit assessments, fund returns will diverge from any municipal bond benchmark.
What you own
| Company | Weight | Value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|
Vanguard Cmt Funds-Vanguard Municipal Cash Management Fund | 1.86% | $329.84M | — |
Nuveen AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund 3.73% floating · due 2040-06-01 | 1.23% | $219.00M | — |
Black Belt Energy Gas District 4.00% floating · due 2052-10-01 | 1.14% | $203.01M | — |
Kentucky Public Energy Authority 5.25% floating · due 2055-06-01 | 1.03% | $182.47M | — |
California Community Choice Financing Authority 5.50% floating · due 2054-05-01 | 0.92% | $163.93M | — |
Black Belt Energy Gas District 4.00% floating · due 2052-10-01 | 0.78% | $138.30M | — |
Main Street Natural Gas Inc 4.00% floating · due 2050-03-01 | 0.74% | $131.43M | — |
California Statewide Communities Development Authority 5.00% · due 2028-10-01 | 0.70% | $124.25M | — |
Nuveen AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund 3.54% floating · due 2029-03-01 | 0.62% | $110.74M | — |
Nuveen AMT-Free Municipal Credit Income Fund 4.07% floating · due 2031-12-01 | 0.58% | $103.70M | — |
The 200 largest of 3,499 holdings, with the share counts as filed, open with a free account.
What the fund is made of
Percentages are of fund net assets. Rounding, liabilities and short positions can make totals differ from 100%.
| Bonds | 98.30% |
| Cash & short-term | 1.86% |
| Securitized | 0.00% |
| Derivatives | -0.00% |
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.
How it has done
VWSTX share class · total returns with dividends reinvested
Volatility over the last 12 months: 0.87%. Past returns are a record, not a forecast.
Jun 2026 and Jul 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.
The 2 share classes hold the same portfolio
| Share class | Expense ratio | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | Worst fall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.17% | +3.67% | +11.48% | +11.58% | -0.39% | |
| 0.09% | +3.75% | +11.75% | +12.03% | -0.38% |
These classes hold the same portfolio, so the 0.45pp spread over 5 years is the cost difference between them — roughly 0.09pp a year — not a difference in what they own.
Fees & fund details
VANGUARD ULTRA-SHORT-TERM TAX-EXEMPT FUND is an actively managed U.S. bond fund.
- Asset class
- Bonds
- Region
- United States
- Management
- Actively managed
- Fund type
- Open-end fund
- Credit quality
- Investment grade
- Rate sensitivity
- Short duration
- Expense ratio, by class
- 0.09% – 0.17%· VWSTX 0.17%
- Portfolio turnover
- 74.00% a year · as of 2026 Q1
Turnover is how much of the portfolio was replaced in a year.
Classified from what the fund holds, not from its name · 2026 Q2. The summary is a paraphrase of the prospectus; the objective is verbatim.
What changed this quarter
Positions that entered or left the fund since its previous filing. Positions that were only resized are not listed.
614 new· the largest 8
514 exited· the largest 8
Debt profile
What this fund holds — value-weighted across its bond and securitized long positions · as of 2026-04-30
Share of the fund's debt by how its coupon behaves — the fact that decides whether a rate move reaches this portfolio at all.
| Floating rate | 58.5% |
| Fixed rate | 41.0% |
| Zero-coupon or unclassified | 0.5% |
Share of the fund's debt value in each maturity band, shortest first.
| <1y | 16.9% |
| 1-3y | 14.8% |
| 3-5y | 12.6% |
| 5-10y | 7.7% |
| 10y+ | 48.0% |
These three overlap — one holding can be in arrears and paying in kind at once — so they are shown separately and never summed.
Risk profile
Interest-rate and credit-spread sensitivity, both in years · as of 2026Q2
More of this fund’s sensitivity sits in credit spreads than in interest rates — a rate rally that comes with a credit selloff works against it.
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.
| Credit spreads | 51% |
| Interest rates | 49% |
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 | +2.98 yr |
| High yield | +0.02 yr |
Share of duration at each point, shortest first. A positive figure loses value when spreads widen; a negative one offsets — a credit hedge.
| 3 mo | 0.06 yr | 2% |
| 1 yr | 0.43 yr | 15% |
| 5 yr | 0.71 yr | 24% |
| 10 yr | 1.02 yr | 35% |
| 30 yr | 0.71 yr | 24% |
| 3 mo | 0.05 yr | 2% |
| 1 yr | 0.39 yr | 13% |
| 5 yr | 0.62 yr | 21% |
| 10 yr | 1.12 yr | 37% |
| 30 yr | 0.83 yr | 28% |
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 | +0.05 | +0.00 | $80.1k | $1.8k |
| 1 yr | +0.43 | +0.38 | +0.01 | $671.3k | $15.0k |
| 5 yr | +0.71 | +0.61 | +0.01 | $1.09m | $14.7k |
| 10 yr | +1.02 | +1.11 | +0.00 | $1.98m | $4.1k |
| 30 yr | +0.71 | +0.83 | +0.00 | $1.48m | $788 |
Dollar change per 1bp of spread movement, as filed and sign-anchored. A blank cell was not filed; a zero was.
A newer credit-spread reading (2026Q3) is on file. This page holds one quarter across every figure on it, so that one appears here next quarter.
Understand how this fund fits with the rest.
Explore shared holdings, compare funds and follow their businesses with your connected AI:
- “Where do my funds overlap — VWSTX, QQQ and the fund in my 401(k)?”
- “How do this fund’s ten biggest holdings stack up against each other?”
- “For my target-date fund, what’s the real stock-and-bond mix once you look through it?”