Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Broad segment of the equity market, the First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX ETF (FXR) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 05/08/2007.
While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.
Sector ETFs also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Industrials - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 12, placing it in bottom 25%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $1.58 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Broad segment of the equity market. FXR seeks to match the performance of the StrataQuant Industrials Index before fees and expenses.
The StrataQuant Industrials Index is a modified equal-dollar weighted index designed by the AMEX to objectively identify and select stocks from the Russell 1000 Index that may generate positive alpha relative to traditional passive style indices through the use of the AlphaDEX screening methodology.
Costs
Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts, other things remaining the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.61%, making it one of the more expensive products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.76%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector--about 70.40% of the portfolio. Materials and Financials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Saia, Inc. (SAIA) accounts for about 1.60% of total assets, followed by Emcor Group, Inc. (EME) and Ryder System, Inc. (R).
The top 10 holdings account for about 14.24% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added about 14.12% so far this year and is up about 11.85% in the last one year (as of 11/15/2023). In that past 52-week period, it has traded between $50.89 and $62.05.