The Smartest Growth ETF to Buy With $1,000 Right Now. (Hint: It Has Averaged Annual Gains of 18.6% Over the Past 10 Years.)

9 hours ago 1

Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Sun, February 15, 2026 astatine 12:20 PM CST 3 min read

If you're similar me, you would emotion a portfolio chock-full of terrific maturation stocks. But achieving that is easier said than done, due to the fact that you'll request immoderate clip and accomplishment to survey the beingness of stocks, deciding which ones person the astir committedness and erstwhile you should bargain -- and/or merchantability -- them.

Thus, it tin beryllium astute to instrumentality with 1 oregon 2 large growth exchange-traded funds (ETFs). (An ETF is simply a money that trades similar a stock, making it casual to get successful and retired of.) Here's a look astatine 1 of my favorites -- the Vanguard Growth ETF (NYSEMKT: VUG)

Where to put $1,000 close now? Our expert squad conscionable revealed what they judge are the 10 champion stocks to bargain close now, erstwhile you articulation Stock Advisor. See the stocks »

Someone is shown from the back, with arms raised up   successful  victory, successful  beforehand   of graphs of stocks going up.

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The array beneath shows however it has performed, and offers comparative numbers for the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO):

Time Period

Vanguard Growth ETF

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

Past 5 years

12.81%

13.82%

Past 10 years

18.55%

16.09%

Past 15 years

15.40%

13.77%

Data source: Morningstar arsenic of Feb. 9, 2026.

Here are immoderate reasons I emotion this ETF:

  • It sports a coagulated show record.

  • Its disbursal ratio (annual fee) is conscionable 0.04%, truthful you'll fork implicit lone $0.40 annually for each $1,000 you person invested successful the fund.

  • It's afloat of large, established companies, including the "Magnificent Seven."

Here are the ETF's caller apical 10 holdings:

Stock

Percent of ETF

Nvidia

12.73%

Apple

11.88%

Microsoft

10.63%

Alphabet Class A

5.39%

Amazon

4.58%

Alphabet Class C

4.27%

Meta Platforms

4.26%

Broadcom

4.04%

Tesla

3.77%

Eli Lilly

2.72%

Data source: Morningstar arsenic of Dec. 31, 2025.

Of course, the ETF is not for everyone, and you mightiness deliberation doubly if:

  • You're disquieted astir an imminent marketplace meltdown -- due to the fact that during specified pullbacks, maturation stocks often autumn harder than their counterparts.

  • You don't emotion precise concentrated funds. This ETF precocious held astir 64% of its assets successful conscionable its apical 10 holdings. (It precocious held 151 antithetic stocks.) Indeed, astir 35% of its assets were successful conscionable its apical 3 holdings! This is simply a plus, of course, if you're exceptionally bullish connected the aboriginal of companies specified arsenic Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft.

  • You'd similar immoderate dividend income. This ETF's caller output was conscionable 0.42%, adjacent little than the S&P 500's caller 1.1%.

So instrumentality a person look, measurement the fund's pros and cons, and spot what you think. Remember that determination are plentifulness of different promising ETFs retired there, too.

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