First Trust NASDAQ-100 ex-Tech Sect ETF's Average People Pillar and Process Pillar ratings result in a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral. The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the lowest fee quintile among peers.  

 The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy earns an Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a considerable overweight position in liquidity exposure and 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 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

Constellation Energy Corp

Kraft Heinz

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc

Trade Desk

Diamondback Energy

PepsiCo

Xcel Energy

Cintas

DexCom

American Electric Power Company

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 NASDAQ-100 ex-Tech Sect Fund earns an Average Process Pillar rating. 

The predominant contributor to the rating is the stability of the management team. Specifically, the fund has not seen a manager change in the last 11 years. This fund tracks an index, which also increases its process rating. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, shows that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. Lastly, the process is limited by the fund's unremarkable 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.

 This strategy skews toward smaller, deeper value companies than its average peer in the Large Growth Morningstar Category. Examining additional factor exposure, this fund has constantly tilted toward stocks with higher trading volumes than its Morningstar Category Peers over 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 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 beat peers during economic booms. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to the Quality factor than peers. Additionally, this strategy's portfolio has held more stocks with high dividend or buyback yields than peers over recent years. High-yield stocks tend to be connected to more mature companies earning enough cash to return some to shareholders. At times, however, extreme market pressure can force them to cut their dividends, which hurts stock performance. In this month, the strategy also had more exposure to the Yield 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 industrials and consumer defensive relative to the category average by 11.7 and 10.8 percentage points, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are technology and financial services, underweight the average by 37.0 and 6.8 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is composed of 60 holdings and is less top-heavy than peers. Specifically, 19.8% of the fund’s assets are concentrated within the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the category’s 54.8% average.

Average

Process

First Trust’s equity  team is comparable to peers, resulting in 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 22 years of 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.

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

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