ETV - Weekly Closed-End Fund Roundup: April 23 2023
2023-05-05 17:50:18 ET
Summary
- 1 out of 22 CEF sectors positive on price and 3 out of 22 sectors positive on NAV last week.
- ETV/EXD merger completed.
- NUO/NKG/NZF merger completed.
- Preferreds and real estate CEFs see discounts widen most this week.
Author’s note: This article was released to CEF/ETF Income Laboratory members on April 26, 2023. Please check latest data before investing.
The Weekly Closed-End Fund Roundup will be put out at the start of each week to summarize recent price movements in closed-end fund [CEF] sectors in the last week, as well as to highlight recently concluded or upcoming corporate actions on CEFs, such as tender offers. Data is taken from the close of Friday, April 21st, 2023 .
Weekly performance roundup
For CEFs, 1 out of 22 sectors were positive on price (down from 22 last week) and the average price return was -1.00% (down from +3.10% last week). The lead gainer was Commodities (+0.13%) while Emerging Market Income lagged (-2.55%).
3 out of 22 sectors were positive on NAV (down from 19 last week), while the average NAV return was -0.72% (down from +1.99% last week). The top sector by NAV was Real Estate (+0.61%) while the weakest sector by NAV was New York Munis (-2.25%).
The sector with the highest premium was Limited Duration (-0.54%), while the sector with the widest discount is Asia Equity (-17.32%). The average sector discount is -8.10% (up from -7.41% last week).
The sector with the highest premium/discount increase was Convertibles (+0.29%), while Preferreds (-1.17%) showed the lowest premium/discount decline. The average change in premium/discount was -0.30% (down from +0.62% last week).
The sector with the highest average 1-year z-score is Emerging Market Income (+0.54), while the sector with the lowest average 1-year z-score is Asia Equity (-1.57). The average z-score is -0.66 (down from -0.42 last week).
The sectors with the highest yields are Senior Loans (+12.43%), Emerging Market Income (+11.64%), and Multisector Income (+10.98%). Discounts are included for comparison. The average sector yield is +8.22% (down from +8.28% last week).
Individual CEFs that have undergone a significant decrease in premium/discount value over the past week, coupled optionally with an increasing NAV trend, a negative z-score, and/or are trading at a discount, are potential buy candidates.
| Fund |
| Ticker |
| P/D decrease |
| Yield |
| P/D |
| z-score |
| Price change |
| NAV change |
| The Central and Eastern Europe Fund |
| ( CEE ) |
| -5.52% |
| 2.89% |
| 5.77% |
| -1.7 |
| -3.73% |
| -2.46% |
| XAI Octagon FR & Alt Income Term Trust |
| ( XFLT ) |
| -5.43% |
| 13.86% |
| -2.49% |
| -1.4 |
| -3.95% |
| 2.44% |
| Flah&Crum Preferred Securities |
| ( FFC ) |
| -4.03% |
| 7.97% |
| -7.03% |
| -1.7 |
| -4.04% |
| 0.87% |
| PIMCO Dynamic Income Fund |
| ( PDI ) |
| -3.06% |
| 14.85% |
| 0.46% |
| -1.7 |
| -0.06% |
| -0.45% |
| Insight Select Income Fund |
| ( INSI ) |
| -2.98% |
| 4.59% |
| -9.73% |
| -0.3 |
| -2.91% |
| -0.94% |
| PIMCO Access Income |
| ( PAXS ) |
| -2.94% |
| 12.51% |
| -5.72% |
| -0.1 |
| -2.72% |
| 0.00% |
| Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Opp |
| ( PFO ) |
| -2.90% |
| 7.49% |
| -9.69% |
| -2.3 |
| -2.91% |
| -1.88% |
| Cohen & Steers Total Return |
| ( RFI ) |
| -2.72% |
| 8.18% |
| 1.64% |
| -1.0 |
| -1.59% |
| -1.28% |
| PIMCO Income Strategy II |
| ( PFN ) |
| -2.55% |
| 12.34% |
| 1.45% |
| -0.5 |
| -1.41% |
| -0.36% |
| Oxford Lane Capital Corp |
| ( OXLC ) |
| -2.45% |
| 17.27% |
| 5.33% |
| -0.4 |
| 0.97% |
| 1.49% |
Conversely, individual CEFs that have undergone a significant increase in premium/discount value in the past week, coupled optionally with a decreasing NAV trend, a positive z-score, and/or are trading at a premium, are potential sell candidates.
| Fund |
| Ticker |
| P/D increase |
| Yield |
| P/D |
| z-score |
| Price change |
| NAV change |
| Eagle Point Credit Company LLC |
| ( ECC ) |
| 5.39% |
| 16.92% |
| 26.06% |
| 2.1 |
| 1.61% |
| -1.69% |
| PCM Fund |
| ( PCM ) |
| 5.02% |
| 10.14% |
| 39.68% |
| 2.4 |
| 5.22% |
| -3.84% |
| RiverNorth Managed Duration Muni Inc Fd |
| ( RMM ) |
| 3.68% |
| 7.22% |
| -4.37% |
| 0.6 |
| -0.39% |
| -1.77% |
| Western Asset Global High Income |
| ( EHI ) |
| 3.60% |
| 11.54% |
| -3.16% |
| 1.4 |
| 0.87% |
| -1.04% |
| Eagle Point Income Co Inc |
| ( EIC ) |
| 3.40% |
| 13.22% |
| 11.66% |
| 0.3 |
| 0.62% |
| -3.81% |
| Madison Covered Call & Eq Strat |
| ( MCN ) |
| 2.93% |
| 8.62% |
| 13.30% |
| 1.7 |
| 1.95% |
| -1.26% |
| abrdn Global Income Fund, Inc. |
| ( FCO ) |
| 2.51% |
| 16.63% |
| 23.17% |
| 0.5 |
| -0.59% |
| 0.00% |
| Putnam Muni Opportunities |
| ( PMO ) |
| 2.37% |
| 4.08% |
| -7.21% |
| -1.5 |
| -0.10% |
| -0.27% |
| Vertical Capital Income Fund |
| ( VCIF ) |
| 2.26% |
| 8.30% |
| -1.41% |
| 1.8 |
| 0.93% |
| -0.92% |
| abrdn Asia-Pacific Income Fund Inc |
| ( FAX ) |
| 2.25% |
| 12.13% |
| -13.38% |
| 0.9 |
| 0.74% |
| -1.02% |
New!
From our screener, here are the CEFs with the highest yields, widest discounts, and lowest 1-year z-scores:
From our screener, here are the CEFs with the best 1-year performance, highest premiums, and highest 1-year z-scores:
Recent corporate actions
These are from the past month. Any new news in the past week has a bolded date:
April 17, 2023 | Eaton Vance Closed-End Fund Merger Complete.
April 17, 2023 | Nuveen Municipal Closed-End Funds Announce Completion of Mergers.
April 10, 2023 | CBRE Global Real Estate Income Fund (NYSE: IGR) Announces the Preliminary Results of Rights Offering.
April 3, 2023 | Nuveen Intermediate Duration Municipal Term Fund Announces Termination and Liquidation.
Upcoming corporate actions
These are from the past month. Any new news in the past week has a bolded date:
April 13, 2023 | Nuveen Preferred Closed-End Funds Announce Proposed Mergers.
March 30, 2023 | Center Coast Brookfield MLP & Energy Infrastructure Fund Announces Planned Reorganization .
March 27, 2023 | Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund and Kayne Anderson NextGen Energy & Infrastructure Announce Proposed Merger.
March 22, 2023 | Board of First Trust Dynamic Europe Equity Income Fund Approves Conversion into an ETF .
Recent activist or other CEF news
These are from the past month. Any new news in the past week has a bolded date:
April 14, 2023 | BlackRock Closed-End Fund Share Repurchase Program Update . Any repurchases made under any Repurchase Program will be made on a national securities exchange at the prevailing market price, subject to exchange requirements and certain volume and timing limitations and other regulations under federal securities laws.
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Distribution changes announced this month
These are sorted in ascending order of distribution change percentage. Funds with distribution changes announced this month are included. Any distribution declarations made this week are in bold. I've also added monthly/quarterly information as well as yield, coverage (after the boost/cut), discount and 1-year z-score information. I've separated the funds into two sub-categories, cutters and boosters.
Cutters
Boosters
Commentary
1. ETV/EXD merger completes
The merger of Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Strategy Fund ((EXD)) into Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Opportunities Fund ( ETV ) was completed on April 14, 2023. We previously covered this in a previous CEF Weekly Roundup (public link).
As previously discussed, I wasn't a fan of this merger because we lost a viable pair trading candidate. For example, we recently swapped from EXD back to ETV in our Taxable Income portfolio to gain +12% "free shares" of EXD in 6 months. This +12% of excess alpha far outweighs the estimated ~0.13% p.a. reduction of the expense ratio that EXD shareholders would see when it is absorbed into ETV.
Another benefit lost from keeping EXD separate was that EXD had a greater balance of tax loss carryforwards. This allowed EXD to pay out a higher proportion of distributions as return of capital, which are not taxed (but reduces one's cost basis). For example, in 2021, 100% of EXD's distributions were classed as ROC. Whereas for ETV, they paid out 50.9% ROC, 42.1% in long-term gains and 7.0% in qualified dividend income. Thus, when EXD was merged into ETV, then the accrued loss carryforwards were merged also. Since ETV is a much larger fund than EXD, this tax benefit has been greatly diluted by the merger from the point of view of an EXD shareholder.
2. Nuveen muni merger completes
The mergers of Nuveen muni funds Nuveen Ohio Quality Municipal Income Fund ((NUO)) and Nuveen Georgia Quality Municipal Income Fund ( NKG ) into Nuveen Municipal Credit Income Fund ( NZF ) was also completed on April 17, 2023 . We missed this when it was first announced.
For further details see:
Weekly Closed-End Fund Roundup: April 23, 2023