Making its debut on 12/13/2016, smart beta exchange traded fund Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Growth ETF (NUMG Quick QuoteNUMG - Free Report) provides investors broad exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.

Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.

However, some investors believe in the possibility of beating the market through exceptional stock selection, and choose a different type of fund that tracks non-cap weighted strategies: smart beta.

By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.

While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.

Fund Sponsor & Index

Because the fund has amassed over $396.82 million, this makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth. NUMG is managed by Nuveen. NUMG seeks to match the performance of the TIAA ESG USA Mid-Cap Growth Index before fees and expenses.

The Nuveen ESG USA Mid-Cap Growth Index composes of equity securities issued by mid-capitalization companies listed on U.S. exchanges.

Cost & Other Expenses

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 cousins, other things remaining the same.

Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.31% for NUMG, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

NUMG's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 0.06%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure that minimizes single stock risk, investors should also look at the actual holdings inside the fund. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For NUMG, it has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector --about 25.5% of the portfolio --while Industrials and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three.

Looking at individual holdings, Quanta Services Inc. (PWR) accounts for about 4.52% of total assets, followed by Idexx Laboratories Inc (IDXX) and Fair Isaac Corp (FICO).

NUMG's top 10 holdings account for about 33.71% of its total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, NUMG has added about 0.84%, and is down about -7.12% in the last one year (as of 12/09/2025). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $37.77 and $50.75.

NUMG has a beta of 1.17 and standard deviation of 19.43% for the trailing three-year period. With about 48 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers .

Alternatives

Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Growth ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.

Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF (ESGV) tracks FTSE US ALL CAP CHOICE INDEX and the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU) tracks MSCI USA ESG Focus Index. Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF has $11.82 billion in assets, iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF has $15.25 billion. ESGV has an expense ratio of 0.09% and ESGU changes 0.15%.

Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Mid Cap Growth

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.