First Trust International Eq Opps ETF's Average People Pillar and Process Pillar ratings result in a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral. The portfolio maintains a cost advantage over competitors, priced within the cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy merits an Average Process Pillar rating.  High volatility exposure is attributed to companies with a higher standard deviation of returns. And a low yield exposure is rooted in holding fewer stocks with high dividend or buyback yields -- instead, typically holding stocks in an early stage of development. 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

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Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category index on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. First Trust International Eq Opps ETF earns an Average Process Pillar rating. The leading factor in the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Noteworthy risk-adjusted performance also influences the rating. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the process was successful over that period. Lastly, the process is limited by the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 32%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. The parent's modest success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is:  The investment seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund's fees and expenses) of an index called the IPOX ® International Index.  The fund will normally invest at least 90% of its net assets (including investment borrowings) in the common stocks and depositary receipts that comprise the index. The index is a market-cap weighted portfolio measuring the performance of the top 50 companies domiciled outside the United States ranked quarterly by market capitalization in the IPOX ® Global Composite Index and represents, on average, and 25% of the total market capitalization of the base index. The fund is non-diversified. 

 The portfolio is overweight in communication services and consumer cyclical relative to the category average by 11.0 and 9.0 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are financial services and consumer defensive, underweight the average by 7.1 and 5.9 percentage points of assets, respectively. The strategy owns 56 securities and is quite concentrated. Specifically, 46.6% of the fund’s assets are housed within the top 10 holdings, as opposed to the category average of 16.9%.

Average

Process

First Trust’s team is good but unexceptional, earning the strategy an Average People Pillar rating. There’s a deep bench of seven managers listed on the fund. The team is well equipped, with an average of 20 years of portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of 107 strategies, with a Bronze asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating the potential to deliver positive alpha relative to the category median in aggregate.  

 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.

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 International Equity Opportunities ETF

FPXI tracks a market-cap-weighted index of the 50 largest developed markets ex-US IPOs over the first 1,000 trading days for each stock.

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