Is It Time To Rotate Out Of High-Yield, Fixed-Income CEFs? Part 2

I want to continue my focus on high-yielding, fixed-income CEFs, a topic I started on last week asking the question: Is It Time To Rotate Out Of High-Yield CEFs? To put the high-yield situation in perspective, here is a look at the two ETFs I sometimes use as benchmarks for high-yield and investment-grade fixed-income: iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bd (NYSEARCA: HYG) and iShares iBoxx $ Invst Grade Crp Bond (NYSEARCA: LQD). First for two years, where we can see the turn-around in high yield from just about a year ago.

And second, for the past year to emphasize the gains that have been chalked up in high yield.

Let's keep those numbers in mind as we proceed. A high-yield, fixed-income CEF had to earn a total return of 21% over the past year to keep pace with the ETF. How many did that? Of 125 fixed-income funds listed on cefanalyzer, 95 (76%) have a one-year total-return over 21.1% on a market price basis, and half (62) beat the ETF on NAV. Using the same 8% threshold for high-income as in the previous article and looking at those funds that are paying yields over 8%, we find that 47 of 52 (90.4%) beat the ETF on price and 67.3% did on NAV.
Leading the category for NAV total return are three credit funds and two convertible-securities, high-yield corporate-bond hybrid funds:
Oxford Lane Capital Corp. (Nasdaq: OXLC)
Eagle Point Credit Co Inc. (NYSE: ECC)
Avenue Income Credit Strategies Fund (NYSE: ACP)
AllianzGI Convertible & Income... Read more