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Should You Invest in the First Trust Indxx NextG ETF (NXTG)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Technology - Telecom segment of the equity market, the First Trust Indxx NextG ETF (NXTG - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 02/17/2011.

An increasingly popular option among retail and institutional investors, passively managed ETFs offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; they are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Technology - Telecom is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 2, placing it in top 13%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $372.85 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Telecom segment of the equity market. NXTG seeks to match the performance of the INDXX 5G & NEXTG THEMATIC INDEX before fees and expenses.

The Indxx 5G & NextG Thematic Index tracks the performance of companies engaged in the smartphone segment of the telecom and technology sectors.

Costs

Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.70%, making it one of the more expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.48%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

Looking at individual holdings, Broadcom Inc. (AVGO - Free Report) accounts for about 1.66% of total assets, followed by Zte Corporation (class H) (763.HK) and Xiaomi Corporation (class B) (1810.HK).

The top 10 holdings account for about 14.08% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 1.84% and it's up approximately 18.20% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 01/20/2025), respectively. NXTG has traded between $73.43 and $88.68 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 0.84 and standard deviation of 17.52% for the trailing three-year period. With about 107 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

First Trust Indxx NextG ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, NXTG is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Technology ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.


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