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

 The strategy gets an Average Process Pillar. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight 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

Micron Technology

Broadcom

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Marvell Technology

ANSYS

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-Tech Sect Fd 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. The stability of the management team also strengthens the process. Specifically, the fund has not seen a manager change in the last 11 years. Lastly, the process is limited by its parent firm's disappointing risk-adjusted performance, as shown by the firm's average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 2.7 stars. A lower star rating suggests that the firm has struggled to outperform on a risk-adjusted basis.

 This strategy, over time, has preferred smaller market-cap companies, compared with others in the Technology Morningstar Category.  But in terms of style (value/growth) exposure, it is similar. Examining additional factor exposure, the fund has held stocks with higher trading volumes compared to Morningstar Category Peers in the past few years. Such stocks may have less potential upside than illiquid holdings, but they are easier to trade during market downturns. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy has also tilted toward low-quality stocks, companies with higher financial leverage and lower profitability over peers in recent years. Such positions do not tend to provide much ballast for a portfolio. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to the Quality factor than peers. In addition, this strategy has had a bias away from momentum stocks during these years. Momentum strategies typically bet that stocks that have recently outperformed will continue to do so, and those that have recently underperformed will keep lagging. Avoiding the former and buying the latter could indicate that managers are averse to chasing momentum. In this month, however, the strategy had more exposure to the Momentum factor than 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 by 10.9 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its basic materials allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are industrials and consumer cyclical, underweight the average by 2.9 and 2.5 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is positioned across 43 holdings and its assets are more dispersed than the typical peer in the category. In the most recent disclosure, 29.0% of the portfolio's assets were concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the category’s 52.3% average.

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 solid long-term prospects. The strategies average a Bronze asset-weighted Morningstar Medalist Rating, indicating a position 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.

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 NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector Index Fund

QTEC tracks an equal-weighted index of the largest Nasdaq-listed US technology stocks.

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