Making its debut on 12/13/2016, smart beta exchange traded fund Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Growth ETF (NUMG) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
There are some investors, though, who think it's possible to beat the market with great stock selection; this group likely invests in another class of funds known as smart beta, which track non-cap weighted strategies.
These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.
This area offers many different investment choices, such as simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies; however, not all of these strategies can deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is managed by Nuveen, and has been able to amass over $398.5 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth. This particular fund seeks to match the performance of the TIAA ESG USA Mid-Cap Growth Index before fees and expenses.
The Nuveen ESG USA Mid-Cap Growth Index composes of equity securities issued by mid-capitalization companies listed on U.S. exchanges.
Cost & Other Expenses
For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.31%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It's 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 0.06%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
NUMG's heaviest allocation is in the Information Technology sector, which is about 25.8% of the portfolio. Its Industrials and Healthcare round out the top three.
When you look at individual holdings, Quanta Services Inc. (PWR) accounts for about 3.97% of the fund's total assets, followed by Axon Enterprise (AXON) and Veeva Systems Inc (VEEV).
NUMG's top 10 holdings account for about 33.43% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has added roughly 0.23% so far this year and is up roughly 13.68% in the last one year (as of 08/04/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $37.77 and $51.47
The fund has a beta of 1.14 and standard deviation of 21.33% for the trailing three-year period. With about 46 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers .
Alternatives
Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Growth ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.
Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF (ESGV) tracks FTSE US ALL CAP CHOICE INDEX and the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU) tracks MSCI USA ESG Focus Index. Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF has $10.68 billion in assets, iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF has $13.75 billion. ESGV has an expense ratio of 0.09% and ESGU changes 0.15%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Growth ETF (NUMG): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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