First Trust Water ETF
$105.89−0.20 (−0.18%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.50%
- Fund size
- $1.7B
- 1Y return
- −4.7%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 0.73%
- Holdings
- 36
- Volume · 30D
- 0.1M sh
- NAV per share
- $105.38
- 52W range
The ETF.net FIW Grade
Score 66 of 100 sits in the B 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.BScore 66Category 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.CScore 42Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 80Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 80Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 76Category rank
Our read on FIW
BWater is the least glamorous essential business on earth, and FIW has been buying it since 2007: roughly 40 companies earning real revenue from drinking water and wastewater, at a fee below most of the water field.
The fund seeks returns that generally track the pre-expense price and yield of the ISE Clean Edge WaterTM Index, which covers listed companies deriving substantial revenue from potable and wastewater activities.
Why people hold it
- Launched in 2007, it predates most of the water theme. Its track record covers a financial crisis and a rate shock, not just one friendly stretch of market.
- 0.50% a year undercuts the two best-known rivals in the space, Invesco's CGW (0.58%) and PHO (0.59%), and sits below the water cohort's median fee.
- Narrow by design: the ISE Clean Edge Water Index holds companies drawing substantial revenue from potable and wastewater work, so about 40 names instead of a loose infrastructure grab bag.
- A multi-billion-dollar fund in a thin category, and one of the stronger builds in its water peer group on cost, tradability and portfolio quality. It pays quarterly.
Worth knowing
- Concentration cuts both ways: about 40 stocks in one theme swing harder than a broad market fund, and water can drift out of favor for years at a time.
- Cheap for water, not cheap outright. 0.50% is many times what a plain broad-market index fund charges for the same equity exposure wrapper.
- Trading is moderate rather than heavy, so spreads can widen when markets move fast. Income arrives quarterly, not monthly.
FIW Holdings
- Stocks
- 36
- 40%
- A
Sectors
- Industrials58.4%
- Health Care14.2%
- Utilities11.5%
- Technology9.0%
- Materials4.9%
- Cons. Staples2.1%
Geography
- United States91.72%
- Canada3.96%
- United Kingdom2.90%
- Brazil1.42%
FIW 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 | FIW |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −2.0% |
| 1 month | −4.5% |
| 3 months | +0.7% |
| 1 year | −4.7% |
| 3 years | +9.2% |
| 5 years | +4.6% |
| 10 years | +11.6% |
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 | FIW |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −2.0% | |
| 2025 | +7.2% | |
| 2024 | +8.4% | |
| 2023 | +20.3% | |
| 2022 | −15.7% | |
| 2021 | +32.0% | |
| 2020 | +21.1% |
FIW in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on FIW yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
FIW Dividends
- 0.73%
- $0.78
- $0.19 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.19 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.19 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.23 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.17 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.23 |
| Mar 27, 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 | $0.12 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.27 |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Sep 30, 2024 | $0.15 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | Jun 28, 2024 | $0.21 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | Mar 28, 2024 | $0.08 |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.20 |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Sep 29, 2023 | $0.14 |
FIW Risk
- 16.2%
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.
- 0.26
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.
- −28.5%
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.
- 0.99
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FIW Cost
- The middle half of Water funds
- Median 0.54%
1 of the 6 Water funds charge less.