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Should First Trust Mid Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF (FNY) Be on Your Investing Radar?

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Launched on 04/19/2011, the First Trust Mid Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF (FNY - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $249.44 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

Why Mid Cap Growth

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.

Growth stocks have higher than average sales and earnings growth rates. While these are expected to grow faster than the broader market, they also have higher valuations. Additionally, growth stocks have a greater level of risk associated with them. They are likely to outperform value stocks in strong bull markets but over the longer-term, value stocks have delivered better returns than growth stocks in almost all markets.

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 0.77%, making it one of the most expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.37%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Industrials sector--about 20.40% of the portfolio. Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Builders Firstsource, Inc. (BLDR - Free Report) accounts for about 0.95% of total assets, followed by Wynn Resorts, Limited (WYNN - Free Report) and Allegro Microsystems, Inc. (ALGM - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 8.8% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

FNY seeks to match the performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Mid Cap Growth Index before fees and expenses. The NASDAQ AlphaDEX Mid Cap Growth Index is an enhanced which employs the AlphaDEX stock selection methodology to select stocks from the NASDAQ US 600 Mid Cap Growth Index.

The ETF has gained about 5.43% so far this year and is down about -2.86% in the last one year (as of 05/02/2023). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $52.58 and $64.15.

The ETF has a beta of 1.13 and standard deviation of 24.43% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 226 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

First Trust Mid Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, FNY is an excellent option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

The Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth ETF (VOT - Free Report) and the iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF (IWP - Free Report) track a similar index. While Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth ETF has $9.89 billion in assets, iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF has $12.07 billion. VOT has an expense ratio of 0.07% and IWP charges 0.23%.

Bottom-Line

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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