The combination of an Average People Pillar rating and a Below Average Process Pillar rating limit  First Trust Large Cap Gr AlphaDEX® ETF to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Negative.  The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the least expensive fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy receives 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 an underweight in quality exposure compared with category peers. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And a low quality exposure is rooted in stocks with higher financial leverage and lower profitability. 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

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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 Large Cap Growth AlphaDEX®Fd earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating. 

The process is strengthened by the stability of the management team. Specifically, the fund has not seen a manager change in the last 11 years. However, the rating is limited 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 five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 29% also detracts from the process. 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 subpar success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup.

 This strategy, over time, has preferred smaller market-cap companies, compared with others in the Large Growth Morningstar Category.  But in terms of style (value/growth) exposure, it does not have much of a bias and resembles the category's typical portfolio. Analyzing additional factors, this fund has constantly tilted toward stocks with higher trading volumes than its Morningstar Category Peers over the past few years. More-liquid assets contribute to more-flexible exit strategies without price changes and tend to be a ballast during market selloffs. For example, if the portfolio faces successive redemptions in a short period of time, it will be less likely to experience a significant loss. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy has also favored low-quality stocks. This means the fund avoids holding companies that are consistently profitable, growing, and have solid balance sheets. Lacking this ballast, the fund's prospects could rest on its ability to surpass peers during economic booms. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to the Quality factor than peers. Additionally, this strategy has demonstrated a preference for 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. Nevertheless, the fund's Momentum exposure was in line with peers in the latest month. 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 industrials and real estate relative to the category average by 16.2 and 2.7 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and healthcare, underweight the average by 8.4 and 7.5 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is composed of 188 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than peers in the category. In particular, 11.9% of the portfolio's assets are concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the category’s 54.8% average. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, on a year-over-year basis, 127% of the fund's holdings have turned over, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Below Average

Process

First Trust’s equity 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. 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 successfully retained management talent, with no departures in the past five years. 

 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 Large Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund

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