Designed to provide broad exposure to the Mid Cap Blend segment of the US equity market, the Vanguard Extended Market ETF (VXF Quick QuoteVXF - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 12/27/2001.

The fund is sponsored by Vanguard. It has amassed assets over $14.51 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.

Why Mid Cap Blend

Mid cap companies, with market capitalization in the range of $2 billion and $10 billion, offer investors many things that small and large companies don't, including less risk and higher growth opportunities. Thus they have a nice balance of growth potential and stability.

Blend ETFs are aptly named, since they tend to hold a mix of growth and value stocks, as well as show characteristics of both kinds of equities.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.06%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.50%.

Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the