News

If you're interested in broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market, look no further than the Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary Index ETF (FDIS), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 10/21/2013.

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 also provide investors access to a broad group of companies in particular sectors that offer low risk and diversified exposure. Consumer Discretionary - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 12, placing it in bottom 25%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Fidelity. It has amassed assets over $1.34 billion, making it one of the largest ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market. FDIS seeks to match the performance of the MSCI USA IMI Consumer Discretionary Index before fees and expenses.

The MSCI USA IMI Consumer Discretionary Index represents the performance of the consumer discretionary sector in the U.S. equity market.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.08%, making it the least expensive product in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.81%.

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 in the Consumer Discretionary sector--about 100% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Amazon.com Inc Common Stock Usd.01 (AMZN) accounts for about 22.69% of total assets, followed by Tesla Inc Common Stock Usd.001 (TSLA) and Home Depot Inc Common Stock Usd.05 (HD).

The top 10 holdings account for about 61.74% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, FDIS has lost about -3.56%, and is up roughly 35.07% in the last one year (as of 01/08/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $58.47 and $79.94.

The ETF has a beta of 1.29 and standard deviation of 25.09% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 297 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.

Alternatives

Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary Index 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, FDIS is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) tracks Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index. Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF has $5.08 billion in assets, Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF has $18.75 billion. VCR has an expense ratio of 0.10% and XLY charges 0.10%.

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.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.