Edwin Tan
Author’s note: This article was released to CEF/ETF Income Laboratory members on July 18. 2022. 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, July 15th, 2022.
Weekly performance roundup
12 out of 23 sectors were positive on price (down from 17 last week) and the average price return was 0.00% (down from +1.05% last week). The lead gainer was Covered Call (+3.55%) while Commodities lagged (-6.26%).
11 out of 23 sectors were positive on NAV (down from 14 last week), while the average NAV return was -0.44% (up from -0.57% last week). The top sector by NAV was California Munis (+2.42%) while the weakest sector by NAV was Emerging Market Income (-6.53%).
The sector with the highest premium was Taxable Munis (+1.52%), while the sector with the widest discount is MLPs (-14.28%). The average sector discount is -4.81% (up from -4.83% last week).
The sector with the highest premium/discount increase was Covered Call (+2.36%), while Preferreds (-1.13%) showed the lowest premium/discount decline. The average change in premium/discount was +0.47% (up from +0.46% last week).
The sector with the highest average 1-year z-score is MLPs (+0.68), while the sector with the lowest average 1-year z-score is Commodities (-1.11). The average z-score is -0.25 (down from -0.30 last week).
The sectors with the highest yields are Asia Equity (14.80%), Global Equity (11.99%), and Emerging Market Income (11.11%). Discounts are included for comparison. The average sector yield is +8.51% (up from +8.42% 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 |
| RENN Global Entrepreneurs Fund | (RCG) | -14.62% | % | -6.60% | -0.5 | -3.93% | 7.08% |
| New Ireland | (IRL) | -8.30% | 32.69% | -16.11% | -0.8 | -11.87% | -3.14% |
| MFS Special Value | (MFV) | -6.01% | 10.17% | -0.22% | -3.2 | -4.42% | 1.34% |
| John Hancock Financial Opportunities | (BTO) | -5.83% | 7.45% | 11.08% | 0.5 | -6.03% | -2.77% |
| Gabelli Equity | (GAB) | -5.66% | 10.22% | 19.07% | 0.8 | -3.77% | 0.82% |
| ArrowMark Financial Corp | (BANX) | -5.27% | 8.61% | -13.73% | -2.4 | -5.68% | 0.00% |
| PIMCO Global StocksPLUS & Income | (PGP) | -4.59% | 11.20% | 4.08% | 0.3 | -6.34% | -2.20% |
| Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income | (PFD) | -4.58% | 7.75% | 1.50% | -1.0 | -3.11% | 1.27% |
| PIMCO Income Strategy II | (PFN) | -4.41% | 11.57% | 2.90% | -0.5 | -5.93% | -1.90% |
| John Hancock Preferred Income II | (HPF) | -4.27% | 8.50% | 3.50% | -0.1 | -3.06% | 0.96% |
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 |
| Gabelli Utility Trust | (GUT) | 15.11% | 8.30% | 86.82% | 0.3 | 6.32% | -2.27% |
| Virtus Stone Harbor Emg Mkts Total Inc | (EDI) | 12.78% | 17.00% | 13.56% | 1.8 | -1.17% | -12.30% |
| Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. | (ECC) | 11.36% | 14.06% | 19.82% | 2.9 | 1.44% | -8.36% |
| Oxford Lane Capital | (OXLC) | 10.11% | 14.35% | 0.40% | -1.3 | 10.39% | 0.00% |
| John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund | (HEQ) | 10.04% | 9.06% | 9.02% | 3.3 | 8.84% | -1.18% |
| Virtus Stone Harbor Emerging Markets Inc | (EDF) | 9.86% | 17.14% | 15.38% | 1.0 | -4.55% | -12.71% |
| Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Income | (ETB) | 9.09% | 7.77% | 19.91% | 4.6 | 10.98% | 2.58% |
| Eagle Point Income Company Inc. | (EIC) | 8.70% | 9.57% | 15.26% | 2.7 | 1.41% | -6.63% |
| The Central and Eastern Europe Fund | (CEE) | 8.42% | 9.62% | 59.32% | 1.8 | -0.50% | -5.76% |
| BlackRock VA Municipal Bond | (BHV) | 8.10% | 3.91% | 7.14% | -0.9 | 11.86% | 3.41% |
Recent corporate actions
These are from the past month. Any new news in the past week has a bolded date:
June 30, 2022 | Gabelli Global Utility & Income Trust Rights Offering Concludes Raising $9.4 Million.
June 30, 2022 | XAI Octagon Floating Rate & Alternative Income Term Trust Closes Private Placement of Convertible Preferred Shares and Registered Direct Placement of Common Shares.
June 29, 2022 | XAI Octagon Floating Rate & Alternative Income Term Trust Announces Private Placement of Convertible Preferred Shares and Registered Direct Placement of Common Shares.
June 13, 2022 | Cornerstone Strategic Value Fund, Inc. Announces Completion Of Rights Offering.
June 13, 2022 | Cornerstone Total Return Fund, Inc. Announces Completion Of Rights Offering.
Upcoming corporate actions
These are from the past month. Any new news in the past week has a bolded date:
June 28, 2022 | SALIENT MIDSTREAM & MLP FUND ANNOUNCES PLANNED REORGANIZATION.
Recent activist or other CEF news
These are from the past month. Any new news in the past week has a bolded date:
July 8, 2022 | Virtus Convertible & Income Fund II Announces Payment of Previously Declared Monthly Common Share Distribution; Reconfirms August 1 Distribution.
July 1, 2022 | Virtus Convertible & Income Fund II Postpones Monthly Distribution on Common Shares.
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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
Strategy statement
Our goal at the CEF/ETF Income Laboratory is to provide consistent income with enhanced total returns. We achieve this by:
- (1) Identifying the most profitable CEF and ETF opportunities.
- (2) Avoiding mismanaged or overpriced funds that can sink your portfolio.
- (3) Employing our unique CEF rotation strategy to “double compound“ your income.
It’s the combination of these factors that has allowed our Income Generator portfolio to massively outperform our fund-of-CEFs benchmark ETF (YYY) whilst providing growing income, too (approx. 10% CAGR).
Income Lab
Remember, it’s really easy to put together a high-yielding CEF portfolio, but to do so profitably is another matter!
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