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Should You Invest in the First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR)?

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Designed to provide broad exposure to the Technology - Broad segment of the U.S. equity market, the First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 07/06/2015.

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.

Sector ETFs are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Technology - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 6, placing it in top 38%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $577.28 M, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Technology - Broad segment of the U.S. equity market. CIBR seeks to match the performance of the Nasdaq CTA Cybersecurity Index before fees and expenses.

The Nasdaq CTA Cybersecurity Index tracks the performance of companies engaged in the cybersecurity segment of the technology and industrials sectors.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.60%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.11%.

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.

Looking at individual holdings, Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW - Free Report) accounts for about 6.37% of total assets, followed by Symantec Corporation and Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM - Free Report) .

The top 10 holdings account for about 45.96% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

The ETF has added about 14.25% so far this year and is up about 20.82% in the last one year (as of 05/08/2018). In that past 52-week period, it has traded between $20.63 and $26.57.

The ETF has a beta of 0.99 and standard deviation of 17.58% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 33 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

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.