The First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF (EDOW) was launched on August 8, 2017, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.
The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $309.15 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
Large cap companies typically 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
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.5%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.23%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Information Technology sector -- about 21.5% of the portfolio. Financials and Healthcare round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) accounts for about 3.58% of total assets, followed by Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) and Chevron Corporation (CVX).
The top 10 holdings account for about 34.87% 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 has added about 6.3% so far this year and it's up approximately 18.46% in the last one year (as of 06/12/2026). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $36.83 and $44.03.
The ETF has a beta of 0.83 and standard deviation of 12.44% 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 excellent 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 iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares (VOO) track a similar index. While iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $829.94 billion in assets, Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares has $973.02 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VOO charges 0.03%.
Bottom-Line
While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.
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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First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF (EDOW): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).