PM Images Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund (“CEF”) market activity from both the bottom-up – highlighting individual fund news and events – as well as the top-down – providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical context as well…
georgeclerk/E+ via Getty Images Main Thesis & Background The purpose of this article is to evaluate the Nuveen Taxable Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NBB) as an investment option at its current market price. This fund is run by Nuveen and its primary objective is “current income through investments in taxable municipal securities”. It has been a…
Yuji Sakai The High Income Securities Fund (NYSE:PCF) is a closed-end fund that many income-focused investors employ as a method of achieving their goals of receiving a significant amount of current income from their assets. On the surface, the fund certainly appears to do very well here, as its 11.64% current yield is one of…
Prostock-Studio PDO CEF’s 12% dividend yield The PIMCO Dynamic Income Opportunities Fund (NYSE:PDO) is a relatively new addition to the PIMCO fund family. I’ve written two articles in the past to introduce this new member. In this article, I want to draw your attention to the first one I wrote back in May 2023 (see…
Jordan Siemens/DigitalVision via Getty Images Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund (“CEF”) market activity from both the bottom-up – highlighting individual fund news and events – as well as the top-down – providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical…
Adam Gault In this article, we take a quick look at the patterns of the current CEF sell-off and highlight a number of potential opportunities in the space. We see that the start of the most recent sell-off has roughly coincided with the start of April. Specifically, the S&P 500 hit a local high on…
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Overview The healthcare sector (XLV) has lagged behind the S&P500 (SPY) for the past year and I believe this opens the door to an opportunity to capitalize on this difference. The factors contributing to the sector’s underperformance can be a wide range of things including the end of Covid, patent…
Klaus Vedfelt In my latest article regarding the pending merger of the Apollo funds, AIF and AFT, with and into the BDC, MidCap Financial Investment Corp. (MFIC), I discussed how those 2 CEFs will be integrated into a new asset class and that this situation represents a unique opportunity. I find it rather interesting that…
da-kuk Thesis China has been a hard hit jurisdiction this year when it comes down to stock performance. The Chinese Communist Party (‘CCP’) has taken a number of actions this year to stem the rout in Chinese equities and stimulate the local economy. Among these measures one can find cutting required bank reserves, issuing long-dated…
Morsa Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images The BlackRock Corporate High Yield Fund (NYSE:HYT) offers investors exposure to high-yield fixed-income securities focusing on “junk bonds” and bank loans through a closed-end fund (CEF) structure. The attraction here is the fund’s monthly distribution which currently yields 10%, making HYT a compelling vehicle for income-focused investors. This is a…
Jonathan Kitchen What is the BlackRock Science and Technology Term Trust? The BlackRock Science and Technology Term Trust (NYSE:BSTZ) is an equity closed end fund that invests in the technology sector. The fund was launched during the summer of 2019 as a follow up to the extraordinarily successful BlackRock Science and Technology Trust (BST), which…
Richard Drury Overview Adding different streams of income sources to my portfolio made it a lot easier for me to ride out any type of market volatility throughout my years of investing. Not only did it make it easier to mentally overcome a dropping portfolio value, but it also helped me feel like I had…
bernie_photo/iStock via Getty Images GAMCO Global Gold, Natural Resources & Income Trust (NYSE:GGN) invests in energy and natural resources with a short call option strategy for generating dividend cash. Over the past few years. our articles such as GGN: Prevailing Tailwinds Await The CEF, highlighted the importance of a fund such as this for taking…
PM Images The John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II (NYSE:HPF) is a closed-end fund that income-focused investors can employ as a method of achieving their goals. The fund does very well at this task, as it currently boasts a 9.00% yield. As I pointed out in a recent article, the John Hancock preferred stock funds…
scyther5 CEFA: Welcome to CEF Insights, your source for closed-end fund information and education, brought to you by the Closed-End Fund Association. Today we are joined by Axel Merk, President and Chief Investment Officer for Merk Investments. Merk Investments is the investment advisor of ASA Gold and Precious Metals Ltd. (NYSE:ASA). We’re so glad you…
simarik Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund [CEF] market activity from both the bottom-up – highlighting individual fund news and events – as well as the top-down – providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical context as well as…
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images Over the past six months, income producing assets have staged a rally, bouncing from their October bottoms. Speculation around news from the Federal Reserve points towards rate cuts sooner rather than later, sparking enthusiasm. Positive economic indicators such as easing inflation have shifted sentiment around both a hard landing and…
alfexe The Guggenheim Active Allocation Fund (NYSE:GUG) is a closed-end fund, or CEF, that income-hungry investors can purchase as a method of pursuing their goals. The fund certainly appears to do a good job at this particular task, as its 9.63% current yield is attractive even in today’s high-interest rate environment. In fact, this yield…
Khanchit Khirisutchalual Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist. Cohen & Steers Real Estate Opportunities and Income Fund (NYSE:RLTY) is trading at an attractive discount in the real estate sector, and it is also trading at attractive valuations. Real estate investments trust and preferred, which RLTY is invested in, took a significant hit when…
Tippapatt Thesis Credit Suisse Asset Management Income Fund (NYSE:CIK) is a name we have covered before extensively, with the last piece on the CEF dealing with the UBS / Credit Suisse merger and implications for their funds. In this article we are going to revisit the name on the back of a vicious rally in…
imaginima The BlackRock Energy & Resources Trust (NYSE:BGR) is a sector-specific closed-end fund, or CEF, that is designed for those investors who want exposure to the traditional energy sector along with a high level of income. The fund manages to deliver on this promise fairly well, as its 6.14% current yield is quite a bit…
DNY59 In this article we take a fresh look at the municipal fund space, with a particular focus on tax-exempt muni CEFs. The sector has gone on a rollercoaster ride with a sharp rise in yields starting in 2022 and what looks like a blow-off top late last year after which yields have fallen and…
erdikocak CEFA: Welcome to CEF Insights, your source for closed-end fund information and education, brought to you by the Closed-End Fund Association. Today we are joined by Tony Huang, Portfolio Manager with Advent Capital Management. Advent manages the Advent Convertible and Income Fund (NYSE:AVK). We’re happy to have you with us today, Tony. Tony Huang:…
Dilok Klaisataporn The Nuveen S&P 500 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (NYSE:SPXX) invests in S&P 500 components and writes covered calls on 35% – 75% of its holdings. Doing so boosts the fund’s distribution yield to 7.6%, but moderately reduces potential capital gains. SPXX’s strategy seems reasonably sustainable, with fund distributions and NAVs seeing positive growth since…
Darren415 In this article, we provide an update on the PIMCO CEF (closed-end fund) suite. Specifically, we discuss the changes in leverage and distribution coverage. We also discuss the reversal of performance of the taxable funds so far this year, as well as changes in the funds’ swap portfolios. Coverage Update Muni distribution coverage renewed…
sasirin pamai Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist. Eaton Vance has a number of equity closed-end funds that all have similar names. It can be quite difficult to tell what each fund is specifically looking at from their names alone. There are some clues, such as including “global” in the names or whether…
FG Trade Latin CEF Overview The Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:CEF) is a closed-end fund that invests in gold and silver. The metals are fully allocated for and held at The Royal Canadian Mint. Typically, the mix is around 2/3 in gold and 1/3 in silver. I first covered CEF almost a year…
stephanie phillips/E+ via Getty Images Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund (CEF) market activity from both the bottom-up – highlighting individual fund news and events – as well as the top-down – providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical…
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images Taiwan fund overview Taiwan Fund Inc (NYSE:TWN) is a closed-end fund that focuses on actively managing a portfolio of stocks listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, to achieve long term capital growth. According to the fund’s website, it will “invest more than 25% of its total assets in the semi-conductor…
Fokusiert Thesis Sometimes high-yielding funds prove to be only a mirage, driven by financial engineering gimmicks on the part of managers. Other times, especially in the high-yield world, they are truly supported distributions, with Western Asset Mortgage Opportunity Fund Inc. (NYSE:DMO) being such an example. The fund is a fixed income CEF focused on mortgage…
Oscar Wong/Moment via Getty Images Thesis You do not see liquidations in the closed-end fund (CEF) space very often, but they do occur from time to time. Liquidations are ideal arbitrage opportunities, especially when a CEF trades at a discount to net asset value. It is the case here for MFS Special Value Trust (MFV),…
Darren415 Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund (“CEF”) market activity from both the bottom-up – highlighting individual fund news and events – as well as the top-down – providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical context as well as…
Javier Ghersi/Moment via Getty Images Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist. Franklin Universal Trust (NYSE:FT) provides exposure to both high-yield bonds and utilities. That combination can provide some fairly attractive yields for investors. However, similar to most equity closed-end funds, it will also require capital gains to achieve the fund’s current 7.88% distribution…
bob_bosewell/iStock via Getty Images Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist. The last time we touched on Cohen & Steers Total Return Realty Fund (NYSE:RFI), we also took a look at Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund (RQI). These funds are quite similar in terms of their approach in terms of investing in…
imaginima The ClearBridge MLP and Midstream Total Return Fund (NYSE:CTR) is a closed-end fund that aims to provide investors with a very high level of current income and total returns. Midstream companies and especially master limited partnerships generally deliver a very high percentage of their total returns to investors in the form of direct payments…
zimmytws Reaves Utility Income Trust (NYSE:UTG) is a high-quality closed-end fund, or CEF, mainly investing in utilities and infrastructure companies. As a result, it’s deemed designed to be suitable for income investors looking to benefit from the fund’s use of leverage to improve its distribution yield. However, the Fed’s significant rate hikes in 2022-23 have…
peshkov The Adams Natural Resources Fund (NYSE:PEO) invests across energy and materials sector stocks as an actively managed closed-end fund. The attraction here is a strong record, with PEO outperforming sector benchmarks including several indexed ETFs over the past five years. We also like the compelling 6% yield through a quarterly distribution. Emerging from a…
Yuichiro Chino/Moment via Getty Images OFS Credit Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCCI) is a CEF, which invests in CLO structures that are primarily associated with equity lever. The underlying pool of these CLOs is usually comprised of U.S. senior secured loans, which are then further segmented into several tranches starting from the most senior one (e.g., investment…
Darren415 Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund (“CEF”) market activity from both the bottom-up – highlighting individual fund news and events – as well as the top-down – providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical context as well as…
monsitj CEF Insights Quarterly Review January 2024 Interview – Tom Roseen CEFA: Welcome to CEF Insights, your source for closed-end fund information and education, brought to you by the Closed-End Fund Association. Today, we are joined again by Tom Roseen, Head of Research Services with LSEG Lipper, and author of the Fund Market Insight Report,…
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock via Getty Images Thesis General American Investors (GAM) is an equity CEF. We have covered this name before here, when we assigned it a ‘Hold’ rating based on its intrinsic characteristics. We are revisiting this name based on a very interesting development in the market this past year: most equity CEFs tracking the…
tadamichi The Calamos Dynamic Convertible and Income Fund (NASDAQ:CCD) invests in convertible and high-yield fixed income securities with the goal of generating returns through both capital appreciation and income. CCD typically invests at least 50% in convertibles and the fund seeks upside equity market participation with less downside exposure over a full market cycle. Currently,…
Bet_Noire The First Trust Enhanced Equity Income Fund (FFA) is a closed-end fund that income-focused investors can use to achieve their goal of producing a high level of current income from the assets in their portfolios without the need to sacrifice the upside potential of common equities. As is the case with most funds that…
DNY59 Utilities stocks came under significant pressure for most of 2023, as the Fed interest rate hikes knocked much-needed sense into over-optimistic investors. However, the battering in utilities stocks has also created opportunities for investors in late 2023 as the utilities sector (XLU) bottomed out. Accordingly, XLU bottomed out in early October 2023, well before…
cyano66 Thesis With the jobs report just out, and non-farm payrolls rising more than expected, treasury yields are yet again rising. The labor market continues to be more resilient than expected, and without a high unemployment rate the Fed has absolutely no reason to cut rates. The economy seems to be humming along, with no…
champpixs Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist. The closed-end fund space, thanks to its unique structural advantages and active management, can often lead to some interesting funds that can get rather niche. Sprott Focus Trust (NASDAQ:FUND), with perhaps the greatest ticker in the fund space of all time, is one of those funds….
anyaberkut Thesis Calamos Global Total Return (NASDAQ:CGO) is a closed end fund. The vehicle contains a mix of equities and convertibles, with a small bond sleeve to finance the cash on the dividend distributions. The fund aims to provide a total return, through a combination of capital appreciation and current income. As per its literature,…
Darren415 In this article, we provide an update on the PIMCO CEF suite. Specifically, we discuss the changes in leverage and distribution coverage for the month of November. We also highlight PIMCO’s tactical moves in the context of the recent drop and subsequent retracement of credit asset prices. Coverage Update Coverage across tax-exempt funds ticked…
Torsten Asmus Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund (“CEF”) market activity from both the bottom-up – highlighting individual fund news and events – as well as the top-down – providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical context as well…
tadamichi Thesis The Pioneer Diversified High Income Fund (NYSE:HNW) falls in the fixed income CEF asset class. We have covered this name before here when we put a buy rating next to the fund stating the following: The fund has a 30-day SEC yield in excess of 10%, which is 96% supported via net investment…