The Nuveen ESG Large-Cap Growth ETF (NULG) made its debut on 12/13/2016, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Growth category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well for investors who believe in market efficiency.

There are some investors, though, who think it's possible to beat the market with great stock selection; this group likely invests in another class of funds known as smart beta, which track non-cap weighted strategies.

Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.

Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.

Fund Sponsor & Index

The fund is managed by Nuveen. NULG has been able to amass assets over $1.31 billion, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Growth. Before fees and expenses, NULG seeks to match the performance of the TIAA ESG USA Large-Cap Growth Index.

The TIAA ESG USA Large-Cap Growth Index is comprised of equity securities of large capitalization companies listed on US exchanges & meet ESG criteria & exhibit overall growth style characteristics based on long-term forward EPS growth rate, short-term forward EPS growth rate, current internal growth rate, long-term historical EPS growth trend & long-term historical sales per share growth trend.

Cost & Other Expenses

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 cousins, other things remaining the same.

With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.26%.

NULG's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 0.40%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

For NULG, it has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector --about 26.80% of the portfolio --while Consumer Discretionary and Telecom round out the top three.