Designed to provide broad exposure to the Industrials - Broad segment of the equity market, the First Trust RBA American Industrial Renaissance ETF (AIRR Quick QuoteAIRR - Free Report) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on March 10, 2014.

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Additionally, sector ETFs offer convenient ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Industrials - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 14, placing it in bottom 13%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $6.33 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Industrials - Broad segment of the equity market. AIRR seeks to match the performance of the Richard Bernstein Advisors American Industrial Renaissance Index before fees and expenses.

The Richard Bernstein Advisors American Industrial Renaissance Index is measures the performance of small and mid cap US companies in the industrial and community banking sectors.

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 0.7%, making it one of the most expensive products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.21%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Industrials sector -- about 93.5% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (KTOS) accounts for about 4.53% of total assets, followed by Comfort Systems Usa, Inc. (FIX) and Bwx Technologies, Inc. (BWXT).

Performance and Risk

The ETF return is roughly 28.55% and is up about 19.26% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 12/10/2025), respectively. AIRR has traded between $61.92 and $100.35 during this last 52-week period.

The ETF has a beta of 1.28 and standard deviation of 24.45% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 53 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

First Trust RBA American Industrial Renaissance ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. AIRR, then, is not the best option for investors seeking exposure to the Industrials ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.

Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Industrials 25/50 Index and the Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLI) tracks Industrial Select Sector Index. Vanguard Industrials ETF has $6.31 billion in assets, Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF has $24.78 billion. VIS has an expense ratio of 0.09%, and XLI charges 0.08%.

Bottom Line

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