First Trust Active Factor Small Cap ETF
$39.54−0.46 (−1.16%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.75%
- Fund size
- $130M
- 1Y return
- +21.1%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 0.50%
- Holdings
- 321
- Volume · 30D
- 0M sh
- NAV per share
- $39.86
- 52W range
The ETF.net AFSM Grade
Score 49 of 100 sits in the C band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.DScore 31Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.Not scoredRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 58Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 56Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 71Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 75Category rank
Our read on AFSM
CActive management in index-fund clothing. AFSM runs a multi-factor quant model across roughly 300 U.S. small caps, so you get a manager's screens with broad diversification instead of a concentrated stock-picker's book.
The Fund seeks capital appreciation by investing primarily in U.S.-listed equity securities of small-capitalization companies through an actively managed, multi-factor quantitative approach.
Why people hold it
- Genuinely active, not a rules-based index in disguise: First Trust's team applies a multi-factor quantitative process to U.S.-listed small caps in pursuit of capital appreciation.ftportfolios.com
- Roughly 300 names means no single small cap can wreck the portfolio, a real difference from the 40-stock active small-cap funds it competes with.
- Live since 2019, so the model has a public track record through the 2020 crash and the 2022 drawdown rather than a backtest.
- Pays shareholders quarterly, and the underlying holdings score well on portfolio quality measures relative to the active small-cap group.
Worth knowing
- The 0.75% expense ratio is the headline trade-off: well above the typical active U.S. small-cap fund, and about triple systematic rivals like AVUV and AVSC at 0.25%.
- Thinly traded compared with the category's giants, so bid-ask spreads and order type matter more here than with a household-name small-cap ETF.
- No benchmark index to grade it against. With an active quant mandate, results ride entirely on the model's factor calls rather than on tracking something.
AFSM Holdings
- Stocks
- 321
- 9%
- PARR
Sectors
- Health Care19.8%
- Technology18.2%
- Financials16.3%
- Industrials13.8%
- Consumer Discr.9.1%
- Energy7.0%
- Communication4.0%
- Cons. Staples3.8%
- Materials3.8%
- Real Estate3.8%
- Utilities0.4%
Geography
- United States90.52%
- Bermuda4.43%
- United Kingdom0.98%
- Monaco0.68%
- Singapore0.59%
- Cayman Islands0.49%
- Israel0.44%
- Brazil0.43%
- 1.43%
AFSM Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | AFSM |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +22.1% |
| 1 month | −1.9% |
| 3 months | +0.7% |
| 1 year | +21.1% |
| 3 years | +19.9% |
| 5 years | +9.9% |
| 10 years | — |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | AFSM |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +22.1% | |
| 2025 | +10.0% | |
| 2024 | +10.5% | |
| 2023 | +22.2% | |
| 2022 | −17.5% | |
| 2021 | +26.1% | |
| 2020 | +8.4% |
AFSM in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on AFSM yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
AFSM Dividends
- 0.50%
- $0.20
- $0.08 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.04 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.06 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.02 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.06 |
| Mar 27, 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 | $0.05 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.08 |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Sep 30, 2024 | $0.02 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | Jun 28, 2024 | $0.05 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | Mar 28, 2024 | $0.03 |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.16 |
| Jun 27, 2023 | Jun 30, 2023 | $0.05 |
AFSM Risk
- 18.4%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.73
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −28.3%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 1.03
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
AFSM Cost
- The middle half of US Active Small-Cap funds
- Median 0.55%
26 of the 39 US Active Small-Cap funds charge less.