A new ETF that targets high-quality dividend growth opportunities in developed markets outside the U.S.

Company Website: http://www.ftportfolios.com/
WHEATON, Ill. -- (Business Wire)

First Trust Advisors L.P. (“First Trust”), a leading exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) provider with more than $219 billion in ETF assets under management as of December 31, 2025, announced today that it has launched the First Trust International Rising Dividend Achievers ETF (Nasdaq: IDVY) (the “fund”). The fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund’s fees and expenses) of the Nasdaq International Rising Dividend Achievers™ Index (the “index”). IDVY joins First Trust's Dividend Achievers suite, alongside the First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF (RDVY) and First Trust SMID Cap Rising Dividend Achievers ETF (SDVY), which together hold more than $28 billion in combined assets under management as of December 31, 2025, and brings the same dividend achievers index framework to international equities.

"As investors increasingly look for opportunities overseas, we believe a disciplined approach favoring high-quality companies with strong balance sheets and a track record of growing dividends and earnings may provide a compelling edge," said Ryan Issakainen, CFA, Senior Vice President, ETF Strategist at First Trust. “In our view, IDVY offers an effective strategy for gaining exposure to these high-quality international dividend growers and may serve as a natural complement to two of our most successful U.S. dividend growth ETFs, RDVY and SDVY."

Many U.S. investors may be underexposed to high-quality dividend growers in developed markets outside the United States, despite the fact that, in many parts of the world dividend yields may be higher. IDVY seeks to provide exposure, via the index, to the performance of securities from developed markets outside the U.S. that demonstrate strong financial health and dividend growth potential. These companies exhibit a combination of attributes that may offer investors compelling income opportunities while the fund’s international exposure may enhance overall portfolio diversification.

The index is comprised of four sub-portfolios for which securities must meet stringent eligibility criteria including dividend growth, positive and growing earnings per share, cash-to-debt ratio, and payout ratio factors. Eligible securities are ranked by a combination of these factors and up to 100 securities with the lowest (most favorable) combined ranks are selected for inclusion in each sub-portfolio. One sub-portfolio is reconstituted and rebalanced in March, June, September, and December. The reconstituted sub-portfolio is then combined with the sub-portfolios not undergoing a reconstitution to form the index. The index is rebalanced annually so that each of the four sub-portfolios is equally weighted among each other, each representing 25% of the total index weight.

“This launch represents an important milestone in the evolution of our Rising Dividend Achievers index family. By extending a disciplined, proven approach to dividend growth into international developed markets, we’re helping First Trust deliver a strategy that complements its U.S.-focused offerings and supports market participants seeking high-quality income opportunities worldwide. We’re excited to build on the strength of this relationship and continue expanding one of our most successful global index families,” said Cameron Lilja, VP and Head of Index Solutions, Nasdaq.

For more information about First Trust, please contact Ryan Issakainen at (630) 765-8689 or RIssakainen@FTAdvisors.com.

About First Trust

First Trust is a federally registered investment advisor and serves as the fund’s investment advisor. First Trust and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. (“FTP”), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately held companies that provide a variety of investment services. First Trust has collective assets under management or supervision of approximately $309 billion as of December 31, 2025 through unit investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, mutual funds and separate managed accounts. First Trust is the supervisor of the First Trust unit investment trusts, while FTP is the sponsor. FTP is also a distributor of mutual fund shares and exchange-traded fund creation units. First Trust and FTP are based in Wheaton, Illinois. For more information, visit https://www.ftportfolios.com.

You should consider a fund’s investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. Contact First Trust Portfolios L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 or visit www.ftportfolios.com to obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information about a fund. The prospectus or summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing.

Risk Considerations

You could lose money by investing in a fund. An investment in a fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed. There can be no assurance that a fund's objective(s) will be achieved. Investors buying or selling shares on the secondary market may incur customary brokerage commissions. Please refer to each fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for additional details on a fund's risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.

Unlike mutual funds, shares of the fund may only be redeemed directly from a fund by authorized participants in very large creation/redemption units. If a fund's authorized participants are unable to proceed with creation/redemption orders and no other authorized participant is able to step forward to create or redeem, fund shares may trade at a premium or discount to a fund's net asset value and possibly face delisting and the bid/ask spread may widen.

Current market conditions risk is the risk that a particular investment, or shares of the fund in general, may fall in value due to current market conditions. For example, changes in governmental fiscal and regulatory policies, disruptions to banking and real estate markets, actual and threatened international armed conflicts and hostilities, and public health crises, among other significant events, could have a material impact on the value of the fund's investments.

A fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. Such events could cause a fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss.

Depositary receipts may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market and distributions may be subject to a fee. Holders may have limited voting rights, and investment restrictions in certain countries may adversely impact their value.

Companies that issue dividend-paying securities are not required to continue to pay dividends on such securities. Therefore, there is a possibility that such companies could reduce or eliminate the payment of dividends in the future.

Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur in the equity market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry or sector of the market.

Financial services companies are subject to the adverse effects of economic recession, currency exchange rates, government regulation, decreases in the availability of capital, volatile interest rates, portfolio concentration in geographic markets, industries or products, and competition from new entrants in their fields of business.

An index fund will be concentrated in an industry or a group of industries to the extent that the index is so concentrated. A fund with significant exposure to a single asset class, or the securities of issuers within the same country, state, region, industry, or sector may have its value more affected by an adverse economic, business or political development than a broadly diversified fund.

A fund may be a constituent of one or more indices or models which could greatly affect a fund's trading activity, size and volatility.

There is no assurance that the index provider or its agents will compile or maintain the index accurately. Losses or costs associated with any index provider errors generally will be borne by a fund and its shareholders.

Industrials and producer durables companies are subject to certain risks, including the general state of the economy, intense competition, consolidation, domestic and international politics, excess capacity and consumer demand and spending trends. They may also be significantly affected by overall capital spending levels, economic cycles, technical obsolescence, delays in modernization, labor relations, and government regulations.

Because Japan's economy and equity market share a strong correlation with the U.S. markets, the Japanese economy may be affected by economic problems in the U.S. Japan also has a growing economic relationship with China and other Southeast Asian countries. Should political tension increase, it could adversely affect the economy and destabilize the region as a whole. Japan also remains heavily dependent on oil imports, and higher commodity prices could therefore have a negative impact on the economy. Japanese securities may also be subject to lack of liquidity, excessive taxation, government seizure of assets, different legal or accounting standards and less government supervision and regulation of exchanges than in the U.S. Furthermore, the natural disasters that have impacted Japan and the ongoing recovery efforts have had a negative effect on Japan's economy, and may continue to do so.

Large capitalization companies may grow at a slower rate than the overall market.

Certain fund investments may be subject to restrictions on resale, trade over-the-counter or in limited volume, or lack an active trading market. Illiquid securities may trade at a discount and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value.

Market risk is the risk that a particular security, or shares of a fund in general may fall in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as general economic conditions, political events, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of a fund could decline in value or underperform other investments as a result. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious disease or other public health issues, recessions, natural disasters or other events could have significant negative impact on a fund.

A fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for fund shares due to a limited number of market makers. Decisions by market makers or authorized participants to reduce their role or step away in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of a fund's portfolio securities and a fund's market price.

Large inflows and outflows may impact a new fund's market exposure for limited periods of time.

An index fund's return may not match the return of the index for a number of reasons including operating expenses, costs of buying and selling securities to reflect changes in the index, and the fact that a fund's portfolio holdings may not exactly replicate the index.

A fund classified as "non-diversified" may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers. As a result, a fund may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers, experience increased volatility and be highly concentrated in certain issuers.

Securities of non-U.S. issuers are subject to additional risks, including currency fluctuations, political risks, withholding, lack of liquidity, lack of adequate financial information, and exchange control restrictions impacting non-U.S. issuers.

A fund and a fund's advisor may seek to reduce various operational risks through controls and procedures, but it is not possible to completely protect against such risks. The fund also relies on third parties for a range of services, including custody, and any delay or failure related to those services may affect the fund's ability to meet its objective.

A fund that invests in securities included in or representative of an index will hold those securities regardless of investment merit and the fund generally will not take defensive positions in declining markets.

High portfolio turnover may result in higher levels of transaction costs and may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders.

The market price of a fund's shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the fund's net asset value ("NAV") as well as the relative supply of and demand for shares on the exchange, and a fund's investment advisor cannot predict whether shares will trade below, at or above their NAV.

Securities of small- and mid-capitalization companies may experience greater price volatility and be less liquid than larger, more established companies.

Trading on an exchange may be halted due to market conditions or other reasons. There can be no assurance that a fund's requirements to maintain the exchange listing will continue to be met or be unchanged.

A fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including "fair valued" assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. There is no assurance that a fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time.

First Trust Advisors L.P. (FTA) is the adviser to the First Trust fund(s). FTA is an affiliate of First Trust Portfolios L.P., the distributor of the fund(s).

The information presented is not intended to constitute an investment recommendation for, or advice to, any specific person. By providing this information, First Trust is not undertaking to give advice in any fiduciary capacity within the meaning of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code or any other regulatory framework. Financial professionals are responsible for evaluating investment risks independently and for exercising independent judgment in determining whether investments are appropriate for their clients.

Nasdaq^® and Nasdaq International Rising Dividend Achievers™ Index are registered trademarks and service marks of Nasdaq, Inc. (together with its affiliates hereinafter referred to as the "Corporations") and are licensed for use by First Trust. The Fund has not been passed on by the Corporations as to its legality or suitability. The Fund is not issued, endorsed, sold or promoted by the Corporations. THE CORPORATIONS MAKE NO WARRANTIES AND BEAR NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE FUND.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260211900214/en/

Contacts:

Ryan Issakainen
First Trust
(630) 765-8689
RIssakainen@FTAdvisors.com

Source: First Trust Advisors L.P.