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Should First Trust Growth Strength ETF (FTGS) Be on Your Investing Radar?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Large Cap Growth segment of the US equity market, the First Trust Growth Strength ETF (FTGS - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 10/25/2022.

The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $399.03 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Large Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.

Why Large Cap Growth

Companies that find themselves in the large cap category typically have a market capitalization above $10 billion. They tend to be stable companies with predictable cash flows and are usually less volatile than mid and small cap companies.

While growth stocks do boast higher than average sales and earnings growth rates, and they are expected to grow faster than the wider market, investors should note these kinds of stocks have higher valuations. Further, growth stocks have a higher level of volatility associated with them. When you consider growth versus value, growth stocks are usually the clear winner in strong bull markets but tend to fall flat in nearly all other environments.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.60%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.42%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Information Technology sector--about 31.60% of the portfolio. Consumer Discretionary and Financials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Nvidia Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) accounts for about 2.73% of total assets, followed by Valero Energy Corporation (VLO - Free Report) and Meta Platforms Inc. (class A) (META - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 23.07% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

FTGS seeks to match the performance of the THE GROWTH STRENGTH INDEX before fees and expenses. The Growth Strength Index provides exposure to a mix of domestic equities with filters for liquidity, return on equity, long-term debt, revenue and cash flow growth.

The ETF has added roughly 9.85% so far this year and it's up approximately 33.76% in the last one year (as of 06/10/2024). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $22.83 and $30.76.

The ETF has a beta of 1.13 and standard deviation of 16.18% for the trailing three-year period. With about 51 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

First Trust Growth Strength 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, FTGS is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

The Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG - Free Report) and the Invesco QQQ (QQQ - Free Report) track a similar index. While Vanguard Growth ETF has $128.61 billion in assets, Invesco QQQ has $273.19 billion. VUG has an expense ratio of 0.04% and QQQ charges 0.20%.

Bottom-Line

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

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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