The combination of an Average People Pillar rating and a Below Average Process Pillar rating limit  First Trust Japan AlphaDEX® ETF to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Negative.  The strategy charges fees in line with its similarly distributed peers, priced within the middle quintile.  

 The strategy earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant overweight position in liquidity exposure and yield exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And a high yield exposure is rooted in holding high dividend-paying or buyback stocks. The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

Analyst Rating

Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. First Trust Japan AlphaDEX® Fund earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. 

The process is bolstered by the stability of the management team. Specifically, the fund has not seen a manager change in the last ten years. However, the rating is held back by the fund's weak long-term risk-adjusted performance. This can be seen in its five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process has struggled over that period. The parent firm's subpar risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 2.7 stars, also limits the process. A lower star rating suggests that the firm has struggled to outperform on a risk-adjusted basis.

 This strategy leans toward smaller, deeper value companies than its average peer in the Japan Stock Morningstar Category. Examining additional factor exposure, the fund has held stocks with higher trading volumes compared to Morningstar Category Peers in the past few years. More-liquid assets are easier to buy and sell without adversely moving their prices and tend to provide some ballast during market selloffs. They also are easier to sell to meet redemptions if a host of investors decide to leave the fund in a short period of time. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy has also displayed a tendency to hold more companies with high dividend or buyback yields than peers over recent years. Stocks with high yields can be more stable, mature companies, but at times extreme market pressure or fundamental deterioration may prompt them to cut their dividends, which tends to hurt stock performance. Compared with category peers, however, the strategy had less Yield factor exposure in the latest month. In addition, this strategy has taken on exposure to high-momentum stocks in these years. Momentum is based on the premise that stocks that have recently outperformed will continue to outperform, and those that have underperformed will stay behind. In this month, the strategy also had more exposure to the Momentum factor over its peers. More information on a fund and its respective category's factor exposure can be found in the Factor Profile module within the Portfolio section. 

 The portfolio is overweight in consumer cyclical and utilities relative to the category average by 8.0 and 6.6 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are financial services and technology, underweight the average by 6.8 and 5.8 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is composed of 101 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than peers in the category. In particular, 18.6% of the portfolio's assets are concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the category average's 21.3%.

Below Average

Process

First Trust’s  team is comparable to peers, resulting in an Average People Pillar rating. There’s a deep bench of seven managers listed on the fund. Experience on the team is abundant, with 22 years of average portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of 108 strategies, with a Bronze asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating the potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate. This group has had relatively low management turnover, providing a stable environment and continuity for the strategies. 

 Note: This People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. Morningstar analysts evaluate the People Pillar for passive products at the brand level and may also differentiate by asset class. There is at least one other passive strategy at the firm that is covered by a Morningstar analyst, so the People Pillar rating of the fund is inherited from the rating that the Morningstar analyst assigned to investment vehicles under the same brand name.

Average

People

First Trust meets the industry standard for stewardship, but it could do more to align itself with investors. It earns an Average Parent rating.

This is a team-oriented organization that eschews star managers. While exchange-traded funds represent the bulk of the firm's assets, First Trust bypasses the competitive market for low-cost beta funds, instead opting for complex strategies with higher management fees. However, the firm's focus on ETFs for future product development underpins its commitment to tax efficiency and transparency. Some of its thematic strategies appear trendy, but it stands behind them and rarely liquidates funds. 

The firm is a private partnership, controlled by Jim Bowen, the CEO. Many senior managers are limited partners. This ownership structure helps the firm stay focused on the long term and promotes retention, which has been strong for the investment team. The firm has grown considerably over the past decade and is among the largest providers of actively managed ETFs, as well as unit investment trusts. As it has grown, the firm has expanded its investment team and beefed up its technology infrastructure.

First Trust's focus is on educating advisors and providing them solutions. This may benefit investors indirectly, but First Trust could do more to directly align with investors by cutting fees and limiting trendy strategies.

Parent

First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund

FJP tracks a tiered equal-weighted index of Japanese equities selected using both growth and value screens.

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News for First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund ETF (FJP)