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Should You Invest in the First Trust NASDAQ Bank ETF (FTXO)?

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Looking for broad exposure to the Financials - Banking segment of the equity market? You should consider the First Trust NASDAQ Bank ETF (FTXO - Free Report) , a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 09/20/2016.

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. Financials - Banking 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 $230.65 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Banking segment of the equity market. FTXO seeks to match the performance of the Nasdaq US Smart Banks Index before fees and expenses.

The Nasdaq US Smart Banks Index is a modified factor weighted index, designed to provide exposure to US companies within the banking industry.

Costs

Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.

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

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.27%.

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 in the Financials sector--about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Wells Fargo & Company (WFC - Free Report) accounts for about 9.55% of total assets, followed by Citigroup Inc. (C - Free Report) and Jpmorgan Chase & Co. (JPM - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 60.07% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -3.90% and is up about 21.46% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 03/20/2025), respectively. FTXO has traded between $24.85 and $35.28 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.09 and standard deviation of 27.14% for the trailing three-year period. With about 51 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

First Trust NASDAQ Bank 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, FTXO is a reasonable option for those seeking exposure to the Financials ETFs area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.

SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE - Free Report) tracks S&P Banks Select Industry Index and the Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB - Free Report) tracks KBW Nasdaq Bank index. SPDR S&P Bank ETF has $2.21 billion in assets, Invesco KBW Bank ETF has $3.69 billion. KBE has an expense ratio of 0.35% and KBWB charges 0.35%.

Bottom Line

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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