Should First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF Be on Your Investing Radar?

Launched on 01/07/2014, the First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF RDVY is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Large Cap Value segment of the US equity market.

The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $11.71 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the Large Cap Value segment of the US equity market.

Why Large Cap Value

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.

Carrying lower than average price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, value stocks also have lower than average sales and earnings growth rates. Looking at their long-term performance, value stocks have outperformed growth stocks in almost all markets. They are however likely to underperform growth stocks in strong bull markets.

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 0.49%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.83%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Financials sector--about 42% of the portfolio. Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, D.r. Horton, Inc. DHI accounts for about 2.41% of total assets, followed by Mueller Industries, Inc. MLI and Aflac Incorporated AFL.

The top 10 holdings account for about 22.38% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

RDVY seeks to match the performance of the NASDAQ US Rising Dividend Achievers Index before fees and expenses. The NASDAQ US Rising Dividend Achievers Index is designed to provide access to a diversified portfolio of companies with a history of paying dividends.

The ETF has added roughly 12.45% so far this year and was up about 23.75% in the last one year (as of 09/17/2024). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $43.44 and $58.75.

The ETF has a beta of 1.11 and standard deviation of 19.70% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 51 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers 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, RDVY is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Value segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF SCHD and the Vanguard Value ETF VTV track a similar index. While Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF has $60.60 billion in assets, Vanguard Value ETF has $126.51 billion. SCHD has an expense ratio of 0.06% and VTV charges 0.04%.

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.

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