Is First Trust Growth Strength ETF (FTGS) a Strong ETF Right Now?

Launched on 10/25/2022, the First Trust Growth Strength ETF (FTGS) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Style Box - Large 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.

Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way.

If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

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 sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $983.82 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Growth. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the THE GROWTH STRENGTH INDEX .

The Growth Strength Index provides exposure to a mix of domestic equities with filters for liquidity, return on equity, long-term debt, revenue and cash flow growth.

Cost & Other Expenses

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

With one of the more expensive products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.60%.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.40%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For FTGS, it has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector --about 24.70% of the portfolio --while Information Technology and Industrials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, W.r. Berkley Corporation (WRB) accounts for about 2.63% of total assets, followed by Cencora Inc. (COR) and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX).

Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 23.31% of FTGS's total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has lost about -0.59% so far this year and is up about 7.02% in the last one year (as of 05/06/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $26.62 and $33.31.

The fund has a beta of 1.13 and standard deviation of 18.09% for the trailing three-year period. With about 51 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

First Trust Growth Strength ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Growth segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.

Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index and the Invesco QQQ (QQQ) tracks NASDAQ-100 Index. Vanguard Growth ETF has $151.48 billion in assets, Invesco QQQ has $306 billion. VUG has an expense ratio of 0.04% and QQQ charges 0.20%.

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 - Large 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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