An index-tracking ETF that provides exposure to high quality companies with a history of revenue and cash flow growth
First Trust Advisors L.P. (“First Trust”), a leading exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) provider and asset manager, announced today that it has launched a new ETF, the First Trust Growth Strength ETF (Nasdaq: FTGS) (the “fund”). The fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund’s fees and expenses) of an equity index called The Growth Strength Index™ (the “index”), which includes screens to select well-capitalized companies with strong balance sheets, a high degree of liquidity, and a history of revenue and cash flow growth.
A resilient portfolio focused on growth stocks is built by identifying companies that have exhibited solid fundamentals and are expected to grow at an above-average rate compared to the broader market. “Investment professionals have often witnessed how high quality attributes can help companies navigate periods of economic uncertainty,” said Ryan Issakainen, CFA, Senior Vice President, and ETF Strategist at First Trust. “In our opinion, FTGS may be an effective tool for those seeking to improve the quality of their allocations to large cap growth,” Issakainen said.
FTGS joins First Trust’s “strength lineup” which includes the First Trust Capital Strength ETF (FTCS), the First Trust International Developed Capital Strength (FICS), and the First Trust Dividend Strength ETF (FTDS). Similar to these other strength products, FTGS utilizes initial screens to select companies that have exhibited solid fundamentals. Investors may want to consider FTGS if they are seeking exposure to companies that have the potential to weather any market conditions.
For more information about First Trust, please contact Ryan Issakainen at (630) 765-8689 or RIssakainen@FTAdvisors.com.
About First Trust
First Trust is a federally registered investment advisor and serves as the fund’s investment advisor. First Trust and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. (“FTP”), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately held companies that provide a variety of investment services. First Trust has collective assets under management or supervision of approximately $178 billion as of September 30, 2022 through unit investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, mutual funds and separate managed accounts. First Trust is the supervisor of the First Trust unit investment trusts, while FTP is the sponsor. FTP is also a distributor of mutual fund shares and exchange-traded fund creation units. First Trust and FTP are based in Wheaton, Illinois. For more information, visit http://www.ftportfolios.com.
You should consider a fund’s investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. Contact First Trust Portfolios L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 or visit www.ftportfolios.com to obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information about a fund. The prospectus or summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing.
Risk Considerations
You could lose money by investing in a fund. An investment in a fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed. There can be no assurance that a fund's objective(s) will be achieved. Investors buying or selling shares on the secondary market may incur customary brokerage commissions. Please refer to each fund's prospectus and SAI for additional details on a fund's risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.
Unlike mutual funds, shares of the fund may only be redeemed directly from a fund by authorized participants in very large creation/redemption units. If a fund’s authorized participants are unable to proceed with creation/redemption orders and no other authorized participant is able to step forward to create or redeem, fund shares may trade at a premium or discount to a fund’s net asset value and possibly face delisting and the bid/ask spread may widen.
Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-US currencies may affect the value of a fund’s investments and the value of a fund’s shares.
A fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. Such events could cause a fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss.
Companies that issue dividend-paying securities are not required to continue to pay dividends on such securities. Therefore, there is a possibility that such companies could reduce or eliminate the payment of dividends in the future.
Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur in the equity market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry or sector of the market.
Political or economic disruptions in European countries, even in countries in which a fund is not invested, may adversely affect security values and thus the fund's holdings. A significant number of countries in Europe are member states in the European Union, and the member states no longer control their own monetary policies. In these member states, the authority to direct monetary policies, including money supply and official interest rates for the Euro, is exercised by the European Central Bank. The implications of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union are difficult to gauge and cannot yet be fully known.
Financial services companies are subject to the adverse effects of economic recession, currency exchange rates, government regulation, decreases in the availability of capital, volatile interest rates, portfolio concentration in geographic markets, industries or products, and competition from new entrants in their fields of business.
Stocks with growth characteristics tend to be more volatile than certain other stocks and their prices may fluctuate more dramatically than the overall stock market.
Health care companies may be affected by government regulations and government health care programs, increases or decreases in the cost of medical products and services and product liability claims, among other factors. Many health care companies are heavily dependent on patent protection, and the expiration of a company’s patent may adversely affect that company’s profitability. Health care companies are also subject to competitive forces that may result in price discounting, may be thinly capitalized and susceptible to product obsolescence.
An index fund will be concentrated in an industry or a group of industries to the extent that the index is so concentrated. A fund with significant exposure to a single asset class, or the securities of issuers within the same country, state, region, industry, or sector may have its value more affected by an adverse economic, business or political development than a broadly diversified fund.
A fund may be a constituent of one or more indices or models which could greatly affect a fund’s trading activity, size and volatility.
There is no assurance that the index provider or its agents will compile or maintain the index accurately. Losses or costs associated with any index provider errors generally will be borne by a fund and its shareholders.
Industrials and producer durables companies are subject to certain risks, including the general state of the economy, intense competition, consolidation, domestic and international politics, excess capacity and consumer demand and spending trends. They may also be significantly affected by overall capital spending levels, economic cycles, technical obsolescence, delays in modernization, labor relations, and government regulations.
As inflation increases, the present value of a fund’s assets and distributions may decline.
Information technology companies are subject to certain risks, including rapidly changing technologies, short product life cycles, fierce competition, aggressive pricing and reduced profit margins, loss of patent, copyright and trademark protections, cyclical market patterns, evolving industry standards and regulation and frequent new product introductions.
Since securities that trade on non-U.S. exchanges are closed when a fund's primary listing is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of an underlying security and the last quoted price from the closed foreign market, resulting in premiums or discounts to a fund's NAV.
Large capitalization companies may grow at a slower rate than the overall market.
A portfolio comprised of low volatility stocks may not produce investment exposure that has lower variability to changes in such stocks’ price levels. Low volatility stocks are likely to underperform the broader market during periods of rapidly rising stock prices.
Market risk is the risk that a particular security, or shares of a fund in general may fall in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as general economic conditions, political events, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of a fund could decline in value or underperform other investments as a result. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious disease or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have significant negative impact on a fund. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine which has caused and could continue to cause significant market disruptions and volatility within the markets in Russia, Europe, and the United States. The hostilities and sanctions resulting from those hostilities could have a significant impact on certain fund investments as well as fund performance. The COVID-19 global pandemic and the ensuing policies enacted by governments and central banks have caused and may continue to cause significant volatility and uncertainty in global financial markets. While the U.S. has resumed "reasonably" normal business activity, many countries continue to impose lockdown measures. Additionally, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against emerging variants of the disease.
A fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for fund shares due to a limited number of market makers. Decisions by market makers or authorized participants to reduce their role or step away in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of a fund's portfolio securities and a fund's market price.
Large inflows and outflows may impact a new fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time.
An index fund's return may not match the return of the index for a number of reasons including operating expenses, costs of buying and selling securities to reflect changes in the index, and the fact that a fund's portfolio holdings may not exactly replicate the index.
A fund classified as “non-diversified” may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers. As a result, a fund may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers, experience increased volatility and be highly concentrated in certain issuers.
Securities of non-U.S. issuers are subject to additional risks, including currency fluctuations, political risks, withholding, lack of liquidity, lack of adequate financial information, and exchange control restrictions impacting non-U.S. issuers.
A fund and a fund's advisor may seek to reduce various operational risks through controls and procedures, but it is not possible to completely protect against such risks. The fund also relies on third parties for a range of services, including custody, and any delay or failure related to those services may affect the fund’s ability to meet its objective.
A fund that invests in securities included in or representative of an index will hold those securities regardless of investment merit and the fund generally will not take defensive positions in declining markets.
High portfolio turnover may result in higher levels of transaction costs and may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders.
The market price of a fund's shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the fund's net asset value ("NAV") as well as the relative supply of and demand for shares on the exchange, and a fund's investment advisor cannot predict whether shares will trade below, at or above their NAV.
Real Estate Investment Trusts ("REITs") are subject to risks the risks of investing in real estate, including, but not limited to, changes in the real estate market, vacancy rates and competition, volatile interest rates and economic recession. Increases in interest rates typically lower the present value of a REIT’s future earnings stream and may make financing property purchases and improvements more costly. The value of a fund will generally decline when investors in REIT stocks anticipate or experience rising interest rates.
Trading on an exchange may be halted due to market conditions or other reasons. There can be no assurance that a fund's requirements to maintain the exchange listing will continue to be met or be unchanged.
First Trust Advisors L.P. is the adviser to the funds. First Trust Advisors L.P. is an affiliate of First Trust Portfolios L.P., the funds’ distributor.
The information presented is not intended to constitute an investment recommendation for, or advice to, any specific person. By providing this information, First Trust is not undertaking to give advice in any fiduciary capacity within the meaning of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code or any other regulatory framework. Financial professionals are responsible for evaluating investment risks independently and for exercising independent judgment in determining whether investments are appropriate for their clients.
Nasdaq®, The Capital Strength Index℠, The Dividend Strength Index, The International Developed Capital Strength Index℠ and The Growth Strength Index™ are registered trademarks and service marks of Nasdaq, Inc. (together with its affiliates hereinafter referred to as the “Corporations”) and are licensed for use by First Trust. The funds have not been passed on by the Corporations as to their legality or suitability. The funds are not issued, endorsed, sold or promoted by the Corporations. THE CORPORATIONS MAKE NO WARRANTIES AND BEAR NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE FUNDS.
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