Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Sees Outflows Amid Tech Strength

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( $VOO ) has risen by 0.26% in the past week. It has experienced a 5-day net outflow of $44.29 billion.
This is due, in part, to market sentiment on some of the ETF’s largest holdings. For example:

• Nvidia Corporation stayed firmly at the center of the AI trade this week, with the stock up roughly 30–35% year to date but trading in a sideways range that many analysts now see as a buying opportunity. Top names on Wall Street, including Tigress Financial’s Ivan Feinseth and Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon, argue the shares are “unusually cheap,” highlighting that Nvidia now trades near the low end of its 10‑year valuation range and even at a discount to the broader semiconductor index despite still-strong growth. Feinseth lifted his price target to $350 and called Nvidia the must‑own core holding for the multi‑trillion‑dollar AI data center buildout, citing its dominance in GPUs, networking and CUDA software, along with a deep roadmap from Hopper and Blackwell to Rubin and beyond, plus emerging businesses in healthcare, robotics and autonomous driving. Rasgon reiterated an Outperform with a $275 target, saying worries about slowing AI spending and custom‑chip competition are overstated and pointing to a long‑term Blackwell/Rubin opportunity that management pegs at over $500 billion. Regulators also cleared Nvidia’s planned $5 billion investment in Intel, adding manufacturing flexibility just as demand for AI chips remains intense, while ownership data show the stock is widely held across Vanguard funds, ETFs and institutions. At the same time, reports that Tencent is accessing Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips via a Japanese cloud partner highlight both the global reach of its technology and potential political scrutiny. Overall, Nvidia carries a Strong Buy consensus from around 40 analysts, with average 12‑month targets near $259–$260 implying about 44–49% upside from current levels.
• Apple Inc drew renewed attention as analysts raised their forecasts ahead of what is shaping up to be a powerful iPhone upgrade cycle, even as the company adapts to tougher regulation abroad. Morgan Stanley lifted its price target to $315 and kept a Buy rating, calling Apple a prime “product‑cycle beneficiary” through 2026 and arguing that higher iPhone units and pricing should more than offset surging memory and component costs. Jefferies’ Edison Lee, who now expects Apple’s December 1QFY26 results to beat Street estimates, is modeling roughly 18% year‑over‑year iPhone unit growth and 15% EPS growth for the quarter, driven mainly by strong demand for the iPhone 17 in China, where recent growth is tracking above 40%. Strategically, Apple is leaning hard into the iPhone franchise, planning to widen its range from five to at least seven models by 2027, including a first foldable handset in 2026 and a 20th‑anniversary iPhone in 2027 with a new curved, bezel‑free design; analysts expect potential $100 price hikes on Pro models and rising average selling prices to help preserve margins even as volume growth slows later in the decade. At the same time, Apple is opening iPhones in Japan to third‑party app stores under the new Mobile Software Competition Act, allowing alternative marketplaces and external payment links while still charging reduced commissions and performing basic security checks—another sign of mounting antitrust pressure on its App Store model. Across Wall Street, Apple holds a Moderate Buy consensus, with average 12‑month targets around $299–$300 suggesting roughly 9–10% upside from a stock already up about 9% this year as investors position for new iPhone form factors and price‑driven earnings growth.
• Microsoft continued to push aggressively into artificial intelligence and gaming, even as those moves created friction with consumers and pressure inside the company. The software giant is rolling out its Copilot AI assistant on LG smart TVs, a partnership that initially sparked a backlash when users learned the app could not be removed; LG has since promised customers will be able to delete the Copilot shortcut icon, helping ease privacy concerns and coinciding with a small lift in Microsoft’s share price. In gaming, Microsoft skipped its usual “Xbox Wrapped” year‑in‑review feature, and reports suggest resources are being redirected toward a major slate of events to celebrate Xbox’s 25th anniversary in 2026, as the company also juggles heavy development demands around titles like Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout. Internally, CEO Satya Nadella is said to be pressing senior executives to fully commit to an AI‑first transformation or step aside, as Microsoft restructures to work faster and leaner around its AI stack and OpenAI partnership—an intense cultural shift that has unsettled some long‑time leaders but reassured investors that management is serious about defending and growing its AI edge. Despite these tensions, Wall Street remains broadly optimistic: Microsoft stock is up high single digits over the past year, and analysts maintain a Strong Buy consensus with an average price target near $632 per share, implying roughly 30% upside as the company bets that AI services and its gaming ecosystem will be key drivers of long‑term revenue and profit growth.