First Trust Indtls/PrdcrDurbAlphaDEX®ETF’s management team is rated Average, but a solid investment process still helps this strategy retain its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Bronze. The strategy charges fees in line with its similarly distributed peers, priced within the middle quintile.  

 The strategy's investment process inspires confidence and earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight in quality exposure and volatility exposure compared with category peers. High quality exposure is attributed to stocks with low financial leverage and strong returns on equity. And high volatility exposure is rooted in stocks that have a higher standard deviation of returns. 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 Indtls/Prdcr Durb Alp DEX®Fd earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. 

The leading factor in the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, such as Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Impressive risk-adjusted performance also influences the rating. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category average, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. 

 This strategy tends to hold smaller, more growth-oriented companies than its average peer in the Industrials Morningstar Category. Analyzing additional factors, this strategy has consistently had a defensive tilt owing to its exposure to high-quality stocks over the past few years. Such holdings could cause it to trail peers during economic booms, but help it better withstand busts. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Quality factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy also has had an overweight bias to the volatility factor over these years, meaning it has owned companies that have a higher historical standard deviation of returns. Such exposure tends to pay off when markets are hot and to be costly when they are not. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor in the most recent month. Given the high trading volume of holdings, this fund also tilts toward liquid assets. 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 this month, the strategy also had more exposure to the Liquidity 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 technology and consumer cyclical relative to the category average by 8.0 and 6.8 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are industrials and utilities, with industrials underweighting the average portfolio by 23.2 percentage points of assets and utilities similar to the average. The portfolio is composed of 134 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than peers in the category. In particular, 14.2% of the strategy's assets are concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the typical peer's 69.8%. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, looking at year-over-year movements, 81% of the fund's holdings have changed, whether through increasing, decreasing, or changing a position.

Above Average

Process

First Trust’s equity team is valuable but does not stand out as one of the industry's best, warranting an Average People Pillar rating. There’s a sizable bench of seven managers listed on the fund. The team is well equipped, with an average of 22 years of portfolio management experience. Together, they manage a total of 108 strategies, with a Bronze asset-weighted average Morningstar Medalist Rating, demonstrating their 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 Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX Fund

FXR tracks an index of large- and mid-cap US industrial firms. The underlying index uses multi-factor selection and tiered equal-weighting.

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials ETFs category of the market, the First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX ETF (FXR) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 05/08/2007.

Is First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX ETF (FXR) a Strong ETF Right Now?

Looking for broad exposure to the Industrials - Broad segment of the equity market? You should consider the First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX ETF (FXR), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 05/08/2007.

Should You Invest in the First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX ETF (FXR)?

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For investors seeking momentum, First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX ETF FXR is probably on radar. The fund just hit a 52-week high and is up 30.5% from its 52-week low price of $45.25/share.

Industrial ETF (FXR) Hits New 52-Week High

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The Empire State Manufacturing Index rates a level above 0.0 indicates improving conditions, below indicates worsening conditions. Since this survey only goes back to July of 2001, we only have two complete business cycles with which to evaluate its usefulness as an indicator for the broader economy.

Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Activity Declined In October

The September S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI came in at 52.0, up 0.5 from the final August figure. The brightest signs of life are coming from the domestic market, with producers of both consumer goods and, most notably, business equipment reporting improved sales to the home market.

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The manufacturing sector continues to be plagued by supply chain problems while demand is weakening. A post-pandemic reshuffle is in the making, with demand weakening and supply becoming less disrupted.

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The first regional Fed manufacturing reading for the month of August which came from the NY Fed showed a massive slowdown in general business conditions. The index plummeted all the way down to a contractionary reading of -31.3, the fourth-lowest reading on record, the lowest reading since May 2020, and the largest one-month decline since April 2020.

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The Institute for Supply Management's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 58.7 in December, off 2.4 points from 61.1 percent in November. Demand measures remained strong overall despite a slight pullback in the New Orders Index. The index fell 1.1 points to 60.4 percent in December.

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Industrial production – manufacturing output, oil-and-gas extraction, mining, and gas and electric utilities – fell 1.3% in September from August, pushed down by production of motor vehicles and parts, which plunged 7.2% for the month, and by oil and gas extraction, which fell 3.8%. Manufacturing of motor vehicles and parts has been hobbled all year by supply semiconductor shortages that have led to rotating shutdowns of parts manufacturing operations and assembly plants.

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Since many industrials are old companies, you can often pick a business that has survived the last three recessions and kept its dividend alive as well. The most significant problem with industrials is probably the fact that they often become too large to be managed effectively.

News for First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX Fund ETF (FXR)