Should First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF (EDOW) Be on Your Investing Radar?

Designed to provide broad exposure to the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market, the First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF (EDOW) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 08/08/2017.

The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $222.13 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.

Why Large Cap Blend

Companies that fall in the large cap category tend to have a market capitalization above $10 billion. They tend to be stable companies with predictable cash flows and are usually less volatile than mid and small cap companies.

Blend ETFs usually hold a mix of growth and value stocks as well as stocks that exhibit both value and growth characteristics.

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 0.50%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.61%.

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.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Information Technology sector--about 20.70% of the portfolio. Financials and Industrials round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, The Boeing Company (BA) accounts for about 3.90% of total assets, followed by Walmart Inc. (WMT) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT).

The top 10 holdings account for about 36.34% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

EDOW seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Equal Weight Index before fees and expenses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Equal Weight Index is an equally weighted index designed to be a price neutral version of the price-weighted DJIA.

The ETF return is roughly 1.60% so far this year and was up about 11.66% in the last one year (as of 05/29/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $32.19 and $38.24.

The ETF has a beta of 0.90 and standard deviation of 14.89% for the trailing three-year period. With about 31 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, EDOW is an outstanding option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) track a similar index. While SPDR S&P 500 ETF has $602.83 billion in assets, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has $644.85 billion. SPY has an expense ratio of 0.09% and VOO charges 0.03%.

Bottom-Line

Passively managed ETFs are becoming increasingly popular with institutional as well as retail investors due to their low cost, transparency, flexibility and tax efficiency. They are excellent vehicles for long term investors.

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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