Looking for Growth ETFs? These 7 Stand Out Right Now

It hasn’t been a great year for growth stocks so far. After a long stretch of dominant outperformance, growth stocks are struggling to keep pace with the broad market in 2026. A growing skepticism around artificial intelligence-related stocks has driven investors away from growth stocks and toward value stocks instead.

But Morningstar chief US market strategist Dave Sekera says investors shouldn’t count out growth stocks; they should instead balance them with high-quality value stocks in a barbell portfolio.

“A barbell-shaped portfolio provides exposure to the further upside potential we see in technology and AI stocks, while high-quality value stocks help protect against the potential for ongoing volatility in 2026,” he explains. “As value stocks have traded higher and AI and technology stocks have sold off, now is a good time to lock in some profit on those value stocks and reallocate into undervalued and oversold growth stocks.”

Investors who’d like to pursue Sekera’s barbell strategy or contrarians who want to play a potential bounce in undervalued growth stocks can get exposure to this part of the market via an inexpensive exchange-traded fund.

7 Top Growth ETFs for the Long Term

To find good growth ETFs to buy, we screened for those earning a

of Gold with 100% analyst coverage. All the ETFs on the list fall into the small-growth, mid-growth, or large-growth and have at least $100 million in assets. All data is as of April 13.

1. Capital Group Growth ETF CGGR
2. Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF LSGR
3. Vanguard Growth Index Fund VUG
4. Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index Fund MGK
5. Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund VONG
6. Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund VOOG
7. Vanguard Small Cap Growth Index Fund VBK

Morningstar expects the Gold-rated growth ETFs on this list to outperform their peers over a full market cycle. But even though all the ETFs on our list fall in the same category, they may practice different strategies and therefore behave differently from each other. Investors need to do some homework to understand exactly what a particular ETF invests in before buying.

Here’s a quick look at each of the top growth ETFs for the long term. Be sure to review a fund’s complete report for more details.

Capital Group Growth ETF

• Index Fund: No
• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Prospectus Net Expense Ratio
  : 0.39%

Increased confidence in Capital Group Growth ETF’s seasoned leadership and strong supporting cast drives a People rating upgrade to High from Above Average, while the fund maintains an Above Average Process rating.

Although this exchange-traded fund only launched in early 2022, it’s overseen by firm veterans with extensive experience running a similar vehicle. Seven named managers each run individual sleeves here, all with at least 20 years of experience at the firm, and have the flexibility to pursue their highest-conviction ideas. Alan Wilson heads up the strategy and has more than 35 years of investment experience, serving as a manager on the comparable longer-dated vehicle since 2014.

The managers employ a flexible, diversified growth approach that looks different from the concentrated Russell 1000 Growth Index Morningstar Category benchmark. They diversify across sectors and companies and can invest in overseas firms generating meaningful US revenue. As the growth index has become more top-heavy—Nvidia and Apple each exceeding 10% of index assets—the strategy has remained less concentrated. As of February 2026, its top 10 holdings represented 41% of assets versus 61% in the index.

A complementary mix of managers has supported solid results. Since this ETF was launched in February 2022, through February 2026, it outpaced the growth index by 13 basis points annualized and substantially outperformed the large-growth category average. The ETF is similar to a longer-dated variable-insurance series offering, American Funds IS Growth 1. Since Wilson joined that vehicle in May 2014 through February 2026, the series 16.6% annualized gain bested the S&P 500’s 13.6% (its broad-market prospectus benchmark) and the category index’s 16.3%. (The ETF has similar fees to the insurance vehicle.) Early on, the variable-insurance series vehicle benefited from manager Andraz Razen’s long-term conviction in Tesla. In 2025, the ETF landed in the top quintile of its peers, thanks in part to a handful of tech picks such as Micron Technology, SK Hynix, Broadcom, and Shopify outperforming.

This ETF’s 0.39% net expense ratio places it among the large-growth category’s cheapest actively managed funds, and its ETF structure enhances tax efficiency, making it a topnotch option.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Capital Group Growth ETF.

Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF

• Index Fund: No
• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Prospectus Net Expense Ratio
  : 0.59%

Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF’s ties to another successful strategy make its future promising.

The exchange-traded fund’s pedigree is impressive. Manager Aziz Hamzaogullari developed a patient, principled approach to large-growth equity investing in the mid-2000s. After a few successful years elsewhere, he joined Loomis Sayles in 2010 and brought his investment philosophy and three analysts with him. They then began a strong run on Loomis Sayles Growth, a US mutual fund, which continues to this day. This ETF, which uses a variation of the mutual fund’s approach, launched in June 2023.

Both strategies follow key tenets. Hamzaogullari and his team believe in long-term, price-conscious investing. They seek—and find—companies with obvious competitive strengths, which, in turn, generate a lot of cash. Extensive, careful research, usually over months at a time, informs their decisions. Even the team itself is a strength. Hamzaogullari has added five more analysts to his original three, and his time spent training and developing each member has resulted in team stability.

Yet the ETF differs from its mutual fund cousin in certain respects. It typically owns a subset of the mutual fund’s holdings—roughly 20–25 stocks out of the mutual fund’s 30–40. Unlike the mutual fund, it won’t sprinkle in non-US stocks. It can also take larger individual positions—up to 12% or 8 percentage points greater than the stock’s portion of the Russell 1000 Growth Index. That flexibility could be an advantage when large benchmark constituents such as Nvidia lead markets higher, because this strategy could at least match or exceed those stocks’ weightings in the index. But it also increases the risk that single stocks drive performance.

So far, though, those differences have worked to the ETF’s advantage. It avoided recent weakness in Novo Nordisk, a non-US holding in the mutual fund, while it capitalized on relatively large positions in Alphabet, Netflix, and Meta Platforms—let alone a sizable position in semiconductor leader Nvidia. The trick is continuing to manage these positions—and their risks—effectively, and Hamzaogullari’s history suggests he’s worthy of trust.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF.

Vanguard Growth Index

• Index Fund: Yes
• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Prospectus Net Expense Ratio
  : 0.03%

Vanguard Growth Index effectively represents the contours of the large-cap growth market, while its low price tag helps remedy the shortcomings of its relatively concentrated portfolio.

The fund tracks the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index, a market-cap-weighted bogy that captures the growth-oriented side of the large-cap market. Market-cap weighting is a cost-efficient way to size holdings because it harnesses the market’s consensus opinion of each stock’s relative value. Stocks that grow in size take up a larger share of the portfolio, while shrinking companies that may be struggling will have less importance. Generous buffers around the fund’s size and style borders improve the breadth of the portfolio and help tame turnover, leading to reduced trading costs.

Investors’ lofty expectations can lead to high valuations for growth stocks, which may not be justified. Few companies currently match the positive sentiment embedded in the stock prices of technology giants Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple. These three stocks represent 34% of the portfolio together, while the fund’s top 10 holdings, which include other behemoths like Amazon.com and Meta Platforms, account for 64% of assets. That’s 12 percentage points more than the large-growth Morningstar Category norm, as of February 2026.

The market’s largest stocks heavily influence this fund’s return and risk. That can be a boon or a burden. With so much riding on the largest stocks in the market, the fund should do well when those stocks outperform and suffer when they fall. For example, the exchange-traded fund share class gained over 25% annualized since the beginning of 2023, nearly 6 percentage points better than its average peer. But weak performance from the heaviest hitters spelled a 33% drawdown in the bear market of 2022, 3 percentage points more than its average peer.

Over the long term, investors should expect periods of outperformance when the largest stocks lead the charge. But those stocks can leave the portfolio vulnerable from time to time, potentially resulting in greater losses than better-diversified peers during broad declines.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Vanguard Growth Index.

Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index

• Index Fund: Yes
• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Prospectus Net Expense Ratio
  : 0.05%

Vanguard Mega Cap Growth index effectively represents the contours of the large-cap growth market, while its low price tag helps remedy the shortcomings of its relatively concentrated portfolio.

The fund tracks the CRSP US Mega Cap Growth Index, a market-cap-weighted bogy that captures the growth-oriented side of the mega-cap market. Market-cap weighting is a cost-efficient way to size holdings because it harnesses the market’s consensus opinion of each stock’s relative value. Stocks that grow in size take up a larger share of the portfolio, while shrinking companies that may be struggling have less importance. Generous buffers around the fund’s size and style constraints improve the breadth of the portfolio and help tame turnover, leading to reduced trading costs.

Investors’ lofty expectations can lead to high valuations for growth stocks, which may not be justified. Few companies currently match the positive sentiment embedded in the stock prices of technology giants Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple. These three stocks represented 35% of the portfolio at the end of February 2026. Its top 10 holdings, which include other behemoths like Amazon.com and Meta Platforms, accounted for 66% of assets. That’s 14 percentage points more than the large-growth Morningstar Category norm.

The market’s largest stocks heavily influence this fund’s return and risk. That can be a boon or a burden. With so much riding on the largest stocks in the market, the fund should do well when those stocks outperform and suffer when they fall. For example, the exchange-traded fund share class gained nearly 27% annualized since the beginning of 2023, over 7 percentage points higher than its average peer. But the fund lost 34%, or 4 percentage points more than its average peer, in the bear market of 2022.

Over the long term, investors should expect periods of outperformance when the largest stocks lead the charge. But those stocks can leave the portfolio vulnerable from time to time, potentially resulting in greater losses than better-diversified peers during broad declines.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index.

5 Stocks to Buy Before Growth Stocks Come Back

Plus, a preview of earnings season.

42m 44s Apr 13, 2026

Watch

Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index

• Index Fund: Yes
• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Prospectus Net Expense Ratio
  : 0.06%

The fund tracks the Russell 1000 Growth Index, which is derived from the broader Russell 1000 Index. The parent index encompasses the largest 1,000 US stocks that meet its liquidity criteria, which represent roughly 93% of the US stock market. Russell divides stocks into value and growth segments using three key variables: book/price ratio, earnings growth forecasts, and historical sales growth. Stocks in the most growth-oriented quartile are fully allocated to the growth index, while those in the cheapest quartile are fully allocated to their value counterpart. Those with mixed characteristics are partially allocated to each index based on the strength of their value and growth characteristics. The index implements buffer rules and reconstitutes annually.

Market-cap weighting works in the large-growth Morningstar Category because large-cap stocks usually reflect new information quickly, making it hard for active managers to gain an edge. Market-cap weighting also helps lower trading costs. Index funds in this category are susceptible to growth traps: stocks with high valuations owing to heroic growth estimates that aren’t realized. Market-cap weighting can give those stocks more square footage than they deserve. Overall, though, the market has priced stocks reasonably well in the long run.

The portfolio fits the mold of the opportunity set. Its growth characteristics, such as valuations, revenue growth, and historical earnings growth, match peers’, on average. At times, the index’s average market cap differs from the average large-growth fund, but in the long term, it has tracked nicely. The index contains more stocks than its average peer, but it stowed 7 percentage points more than peers in its top 10 holdings as of March 2025.

The index allocates heavily to technology stocks compared with its average peer, a trend that started in 2020. It held 8 percentage points more in technology, as of March 2025. The remaining allocations closely matched peers’ portfolios, with no other sector deviating more than 3 percentage points.

The fund is fully invested, so it can lose more than peers that keep cash on hand during market downturns. However, it captures the large-growth opportunity set well, and its low fee should drive sound category-relative performance.

Note: The Process Pillar rating and analysis are indirectly assigned by an analyst. When an analyst covers a passively managed vehicle that tracks a particular index, Morningstar associates the Process Pillar rating assigned to that vehicle with the index concerned. Morningstar then maps the Process Pillar associated with a given index to any other uncovered passive strategies that track the same index. This ensures that the analyst’s view is leveraged whenever available and promotes consistency when analyzing passive vehicles associated with a given index.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index.

Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index

• Index Fund: Yes
• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Prospectus Net Expense Ratio
  : 0.07%

The fund tracks the S&P 500 Growth Index, which is derived from the broader S&P 500. This parent index encompasses the largest 500 stocks in the US market that pass its liquidity and profitability screens, weighting each by market cap. Stocks are ranked based on value-growth scores that consider metrics like price multiples, sales growth, earnings growth, and 12-month price change. The fastest- and slowest-growing third by market-cap are fully assigned to the growth and value indexes, respectively. Stocks in the middle third are partially allocated to each based on their scores. The index reconstitutes annually and uses buffer rules to minimize turnover.

Market-cap weighting is a reasonable approach for the large-growth Morningstar Category because large-cap stocks usually reflect new information quickly, making it hard for active managers to gain an edge. It follows the wisdom of crowds and takes the guesswork out of stock selection. Market-cap weighting also generates lower trading costs. The index’s turnover is lower than the category average but higher than broad-market index funds, which hold stocks regardless of their growth or value characteristics.

The portfolio closely matches the growth and size characteristics of its average peer. Metrics used to identify growth stocks, such as earnings and sales growth, align with the large-growth category. The index holds large-cap stocks, much like its peers, and its average market cap is identical to the category average. As of March 2025, the index holds nearly 210 stocks, 30 fewer than its average peer, and stashes 50% in its top 10 holdings, 2 percentage points less than peers.

The fund’s sector allocations hewed closely to its average peer in March 2025, with no sector deviating by more than 4 percentage points. However, this hasn’t always been the case. Deviations of 5 percentage points or more are common. Before the fund reconstituted in December 2024, it held half its portfolio in technology stocks, 8 percentage points more than peers. Technology stocks still hold the largest allocation of any sector at nearly 40%, as of March 2025. The fund’s top three holdings, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple, occupy 23% of the portfolio. A heavy dose of tech stocks is expected for a large-growth strategy, but concentration in those three names and that sector poses a risk.

Note: The Process Pillar rating and analysis are indirectly assigned by an analyst. When an analyst covers a passively managed vehicle that tracks a particular index, Morningstar associates the Process Pillar rating assigned to that vehicle with the index concerned. Morningstar then maps the Process Pillar associated with a given index to any other uncovered passive strategies that track the same index. This ensures that the analyst’s view is leveraged whenever available and promotes consistency when analyzing passive vehicles associated with a given index.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index.

Vanguard Small Cap Growth Index

• Index Fund: Yes
• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Small Growth
• Prospectus Net Expense Ratio
  : 0.05%

Vanguard Small-Cap Growth Index’s broad diversification and razor-thin expense ratio make it one of the best small-cap growth funds available.

The fund tracks the CRSP US Small Cap Growth Index, which captures the faster-growing side of the small-cap market. Growth stocks tend to have high valuations because of investor sentiment around their superior growth prospects. These valuations represent the market’s consensus opinion, but they may not always be justified, making this a relatively volatile market segment. Small-cap stocks constitute most of the fund, but it holds some mid-cap stocks, which should temper volatility.

Market-cap weighting is cost-efficient because it harnesses the market’s consensus opinion of each stock’s relative value. Stocks that grow in size take up a larger share of the portfolio, while smaller companies that may be struggling will have less importance. Generous buffers around the fund’s size and style constraints improve the breadth of the portfolio and help tame turnover.

The portfolio is well-diversified. None of its nearly 600 holdings garners more than 2% of assets, with the top 10 holdings usually representing 10% or less of the portfolio. Sector allocations resemble the Morningstar Category average with few exceptions. Technology stocks lead the way, accounting for 27% of the portfolio, 3 percentage points more than the typical peer. Only a 5-percentage-point underweight position in financial services deviates from the norm by more. By most measures, the portfolio is similarly situated to the category and enables its low fee to carve a durable performance advantage.

The exchange-traded fund share class outpaced the category average by 23 basis points annualized since it started tracking its current index in April 2013 through December 2025. Market-cap weighting pushes the portfolio up the market-cap ladder slightly. This should help control risk as smaller firms tend to be more volatile. Still, it was not enough to overcome a volatile technology allocation, so historical volatility has measured close to the small-growth category norm.

Read Morningstar’s full report on Vanguard Small Cap Growth Index.

What Are Growth ETFs?

Growth ETFs invest primarily in the stocks of US companies that are projected to grow faster than the market. The definition of growth is based on fast growth (high growth rates for earnings, sales, book value, and cash flow) and high valuations (high price ratios and low dividend yields). Many of these funds focus on companies in rapidly expanding industries. This group covers a range of market caps, encompassing the large-growth, mid-growth, and small-growth categories.

How to Find More Good Growth ETFs to Buy for the Long Term

Given their high Medalist Ratings, we expect the top-rated ETFs on our list to outperform over a full market cycle. That being said, investors may want to expand their search beyond this list, using parameters that matter to them. Here are more ways to find top ETFs:

• Use the Morningstar Investor Screener to create your own list of ETFs to investigate further.
• Explore Morningstar Medalist funds on our Best Investments page.
• Read our latest ETF insights and analysis on Morningstar.com.

One or more of the Vanguard Funds mentioned in this article track an index created or licensed by Morningstar.