EVX vs NFRA

EVXCVanEck Environmental Services ETF

NFRAANorthern Trust STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure ETF

In short

EVX Trash is a business, and EVX has been the way to own it since 2006: waste haulers, recyclers, wastewater outfits and environmental consultants, bundled into a compact global portfolio of roughly two dozen names.

NFRA Most global infrastructure funds stop at utilities and toll roads. NFRA's index goes wider, adding cell towers, data centers, hospitals, prisons and postal routes to the pipelines and railroads, across developed and emerging markets.

Stated mandate

EVX EVX seeks to track the MarketVector Global Environmental Services Index, which covers companies primarily engaged in environmental consulting, wastewater and drainage, waste management, remediation and protection, non-industrial air filtration, and carbon-capture, waste-to-energy, and biofuel technologies.

NFRA The fund seeks to match, before fees and expenses, the performance of the STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure Index.

Why people hold it

• EVX Running since 2006, long before 'green' became an ETF marketing category. That's a real track record across multiple market cycles in a niche where most rivals arrived a decade later.
• The mandate is specific, not vibes-based: the MarketVector Global Environmental Services Index covers waste management, wastewater and drainage, remediation, air filtration, waste-to-energy and biofuels.
• At 0.55% a year, the fee lands right at the median for its infrastructure-theme peer group. You pay category rates for a far narrower slice of the market.
• Ranks in the upper half of its infrastructure-theme cohort on our review, with no structural red flags in the fund's setup.

• NFRA Five supersectors in one wrapper: communications, energy, utilities, transportation and government outsourcing (hospitals, postal, correctional), across roughly 220 holdings.flexshares.com
• Charges 0.47% net (0.48% gross), net of a waiver through March 1, 2027, below the infrastructure category median.
• The index does real work: half of revenue must come from infrastructure, names must clear a $1 million daily-volume screen, and sector caps limit crowding. Rebalanced quarterly.flexshares.com
• Listed in 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays quarterly, it sits among the stronger builds in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• EVX Roughly two dozen holdings means concentration. A stumble at one or two big waste haulers shows up in the fund, with little else to cushion it.
• Thinly traded and mid-sized in assets, so bid-ask spreads can be wider than at the giant infrastructure funds, especially in fast markets.
• Broad infrastructure alternatives cost less: IFRA at 0.30% and IGF at 0.37%. They're wider nets, though, not a pure environmental services play.

• NFRA Cheaper options sit on the same shelf: IFRA at 0.30%, IGF at 0.37%, GII at 0.40%. Each tracks a different index with a different definition of infrastructure.
• Broad cuts both ways: telecoms, railroads and postal operators share the portfolio with utilities, so this is not a pure regulated-utility sleeve.flexshares.comflexshares.com 2
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy for the category, which can mean wider spreads on larger orders.

Full EVX profile⁠

Full NFRA profile⁠